


The Other Side

by Hawkerin



Series: The New Stuff of Legend [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-05
Updated: 2015-04-09
Packaged: 2018-03-21 07:25:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 33
Words: 83,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3683271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hawkerin/pseuds/Hawkerin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We all want to know what happened on the other side of the void after the Doctor left the new Doctor and Rose. What we didn't realize is that part of that story was already told; now we get to see it from the other side. This is the first in a series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Fresh Start

The Other Side  
Chapter one – A Fresh Start

The new Doctor held her hand as they watched the TARDIS disappear from the beach, leaving them behind forever. He felt the horrible emptiness echo through his mind as the presence of his oldest and most faithful companion dematerialized. It almost brought him to his knees.

"What's wrong, Doctor? What is it?" Rose asked as she felt him flinch in pain. Her heart broke for him as she watched tears stream down his face. She had never seen him cry before, even after the Dalek in Van Stratten's bunker had almost broken him completely. Had their separation broken him as badly as it had her? The panic attacks when she first arrived in the parallel universe had been horrible. But what could be so upsetting right now? They were together again; That should be a good thing.

"She's gone. The TARDIS' link to my mind. She filled the empty void that has been there ever since the war and she's gone now." He wanted to cling to Rose for his sanity, but he was afraid to scare her away after all they had just been through. So he stood there stiffly, grasping her hand as tightly as he dared. Of course, even after so long apart, Rose knew exactly what he needed and wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his tear streaked face to her shoulder. She held him through his shuddering sobs, neither of them really paying any attention to how long they stood there on the cold, wind-swept beach.

Eventually, Rose became aware of her mother close by. "I called your father to send the zeppelin for us, but we'll need to find a hotel for the night. We'd best start walking now before it gets dark. My feet are freezing already." She sounded tired and cold. As much as Rose wasn't planning to be back here, she was definitely happy that she wouldn't be trapped away from her mother for the rest of her life.

"Sure mum. If I remember right, the place we stayed last time we were here isn't too far away. Alright, Doctor?" Rose tried to catch his gaze but he was steadfastly staring downwards as he clung to her hand.

"Yeah, of course, I'm always alright." Rose knew that his standard answer meant what it usually did (that he was definitely NOT alright, but didn't want to talk about it). His shoulders were slumped, he wouldn't meet her gaze and he was clutching her hand like he thought she'd disappear in a puff of smoke. But if he didn't want to talk about it, then she would do what they usually did and keep moving.

Jackie tried to give them some space during the walk into town in the hopes that they could work through some of the things that had them so upset from the day. She was, of course, thrilled to not only be back in the same universe as Pete and Tony, but to also have Rose and the Doctor as well. Now they could all be one big happy family... If these two could just get through this sudden change of plans.

Rose squeezed his hand in reassurance. "Is there anything I can do to help, Doctor? I know I'm not telepathic or anything, but there must be something we can do?" Any doubts she may have had about whether this was really the Doctor flew out the window as her compassion for him drowned out everything else. She remembered him telling her that he used to be able to feel all of the Time Lords in his head, that he would know if there were any left because he would feel it. He mentioned at one point that after the war, the silence was terrible and all he had left was the TARDIS. Now, he didn't even have her.

“There is something, Rose. But let's talk about it when we're settled for tonight, ok?” Would she be frightened by the thought of bonding her mind with his? He had dreamed about this with her for so long, he almost couldn't believe that it might be within his grasp. Best not discuss it in front of Jackie though, she'd never understand.

The Doctor spoke to the clerk at the hotel in fluent Norwegian to get them two rooms that Jackie insisted were going to be paid for by Torchwood since they had saved the entire multiverse. She quickly went to her room to have a hot bath while Rose and the Doctor found their own room. The room was clean, if a little worn. The usual hotel colours of yellows and browns seemed a bit washed out, but it was far better than some of the prison cells they'd found themselves in before.

It had been years for both of them since they had travelled together, but sharing a room was nothing new even if they'd never done more than sleep in the same bed. There had been a few intense moments during their last weeks together where they had kissed, but it never went further than that. So, lying face to face on the king-sized bed, they spent a few moments just looking into each other's eyes. She took the time to re-memorize all of his freckles, the shape of his mouth... she had almost forgotten all those beloved details as her memories became fuzzy over time.

Finally, Rose took a shaking breath and said the words she hadn't spoken to him since that first time at Bad Wolf Bay. "I love you," she whispered as she stroked the side of his face.

He closed his eyes as he leaned into her touch. "Oh, Rose. I love you so much. Those words just aren't enough..." He said something then in a language that was musical and flowing and ancient. He had said it to her before, but only when he was sure she wouldn't hear him. Like when she was asleep or leaving the room, he'd whisper those words and the TARDIS never translated Gallifreyan anyway.

“That's beautiful. What does it mean?” She took his hand and twined their fingers together. Had she heard that before? Somehow, it felt like she might have. Sleepy memories after he read to her in the library or something.

“It's Gallifreyan, so it's difficult to translate accurately in English. We had ways of communicating variations of eternity, parallels, alternate timelines and across regenerations, but I can try to give you a rough approximation. You were/are/ever will be the most precious and beloved person in all my lives, past, present, and future. My hearts always have/do/will yearn for yours to be near me and make me whole.” He kissed her forehead and tucked her hair behind her ear. It wasn't quite right, but close. She could never be with him long enough for her to really learn his language, but he could at least teach her a little of it.

“I guess 'I love you' is a bit small in comparison to that. Maybe someday you could teach me how to say that too? If I could even pronounce it of course.”

“I'd love to, Rose. I'll share anything and everything you'd like. After I lost you, I swore that if I ever had the chance to see you again, I wouldn't hold back anything anymore. I had tried to shelter my hearts when we were together because I was so afraid of the day that I'd lose you, but all I had afterward were regrets. You are my everything and have been since you said, 'There's me.'” It had been their 'first date' (as they joked about it after his regeneration) and for the first time after the war, he hadn't felt alone with her hand in his.

“We were both scared, Doctor. After we met Sarah Jane and you told me how you didn't want to watch someone you cared about die and have to live on, I understood. You already had to lose all your family in the Time War. I didn't want to push you into that again.” She had felt her heart break so much between the time they spent with Sarah Jane and of course all the nonsense with Reinette. He apologized, of course. It was a misunderstanding more than anything. It had seemed like he fell in love with her, but as he pointed out, it was only a day for him. While Reinette may have fallen for him (she felt she knew him her whole life), he had only known her for a day. He was only upset afterward because he had promised her a trip and felt like he had let her down. Things got a little better between them after that. They had grown closer, but she had still felt like she didn't want to push him into anything.

“I did lose them all in the war. I was responsible for it. The deaths of every single Gallifreyan and Dalek were because of me. They would have destroyed the whole universe and I couldn't let it go on any longer. I put the war into a time lock so nothing could get in or out and destroyed it all for the sake of the rest of the universe. I lost my friends, my family, everything.” His eyes filled with tears that he had tried to keep hidden for so long. But in the arms of his love, he let himself mourn. Rose snuggled close and rubbed his back as he cried. She knew he blamed himself for everything, but hadn't known that he had been the one to push that final button. He had saved the rest of the universe, but still blamed himself for not being able to save everyone. No wonder he was so happy when 'just this once, everybody lives.' It was so rare that there wasn't a cost to saving the day. When his breathing finally settled, she realized that he had fallen asleep. They had been through so much that day. Rose rested her head against his chest and allowed herself to fall asleep listening to the single heart beating in his chest.

When she woke again, she could feel him gently stroking her hair. “Hello,” she said as she stretched a bit and curled closer into his side. Somehow, they were both under the covers (though still wearing all their clothes from the day before) and she felt pleasantly warm in his arms.

“Hello. It's still very early, you can sleep more before we have to leave for the zeppelin.” He had been awake for a while already and had turned off the lights before settling back into the bed with her. It was so rare in his lives that he could just stay still and relax. Holding his love and breathing her scent as she slept felt like heaven. Why had he denied himself this for so long? Why had he denied her?

Rose stretched in his arms before answering in a sleepy voice, “I'm alright. Got used to not sleeping much lately. Too much work to do saving the universe, you know.” She held him a little tighter as she tried to organize her thoughts. There were so many questions she had for him, it was hard to decide where to start. “You told me once that you had been a father before. Were you married? Did your people do that kind of thing?” If they were going to spend their lives together like he had asked on the beach, then she needed to know these things and not just what he was like day to day. When they were together before, it was as if none of that was anyone's business but his own. But if they were really together now, then it was her business to know everything about him.

“Well... a long time ago, during my first life I was in an arranged marriage. Time Lord marriages were usually for political reasons. I barely knew her really. We both fulfilled the contracts involved by contributing our DNA to the looms for children. My people used these machines called looms to produce offspring after the planet was cursed by Pythia and everyone was then sterile. Through centuries of looming, we could produce the perfect little Time Lords and Ladies. All brilliant, emotionally detached, and superior to all other species in every way. I was never up to their standards of course.” He smiled at Rose and she grinned back up at him. “When my granddaughter was a teenager, I stole the TARDIS and ran off with her to explore the universe away from Gallifrey. She and I didn't really fit in there. We lived on Earth for a while and she went to high school there until her teachers became suspicious of her brilliance.” Ian and Barbara... that was where his real journey began. That was when he started his life with humans. They were the ones that taught him to make a difference and not just watch the universe go by. He was a part of it and needed to take part in it. Of course, taking part was the main reason most of the Time Lords despised him. He gazed off into the distance as he thought about how it all began and was a bit startled when she spoke again.

“What was her name? Your granddaughter, I mean.”

“When we were on Earth, she took the name Susan and stopped using her Gallifreyan name completely. Her given name was originally Arkytior.” He chuckled softly, “it means rose actually. She would have loved you as much as I do. I'm sure of it.”

“Did she travel with you for a long time?” It would have been wonderful to meet the young girl who inspired the Doctor to leave Gallifrey and travel across the universe. Though the idea of being a step-grandmother while still in her twenties as a little odd. As she had told him before, there was one hell of an age gap between them. Although, the culture gap seemed to be the bigger hurdle to face than age. With his people being so long-lived, they would have generations of family living all at once. It probably wasn't uncommon for people to be hundreds of years apart in age and still be together.

“She was with me for several years.” He smiled wistfully at the memories of their time together. “Then, one day, she met a young man, a human by the name of David Campbell and she fell in love. She would have left him behind though to stay with me. So I did what I always do and made the decision for her. I locked her out of the TARDIS and left her with him to have the life that I thought she should have with the man she loved.” It seemed he was always making decisions for other people from the very beginning. And the full Time Lord was still doing it. He rubbed his hand over his face as he made the decision to change his ways (at least with regards to Rose), “The other me just did it again... the exact same thing with the two of us. You weren't really given much of a choice yesterday. That isn't the best way to start off this new chapter in our lives. Can you forgive me?”

“Of course I can, Doctor. You weren't given much of a choice either. I know you wanted to stay with me, but I'm sure you would also have wanted to stay with the TARDIS rather than being stuck away from her and all your friends in the other universe. We were both denied our own choices yesterday, but I think together we can find a way to make the best of it, despite Mr-Know-It-All deciding for us.”

"I've missed you so much, Rose.” He caressed the side of her face softly. “There is something that we can do that would allow us to connect in a way similar to what I had with the TARDIS, but that kind of link is very intimate as well as permanent. It's something I've wanted with you for a long time, but you need to know everything about it before you make that kind of decision. If ... if you want, of course." He had to make sure that she really understood what this would mean. He had dreamed about this kind of link with her for ages even as he had tried to distance himself from her to avoid the pain of someday losing her. When she was gone, it hurt almost more than he could bear and only made him regret all the things they had denied each other while they were together. Just as he was starting to tear down the walls around his hearts, she was torn away from him.

"I'd like to learn about it if it will help you. It's been really hard for me without you. At first, I didn't know what to do, how to even exist. I just kept waiting for you to find a way to rescue me. After your ... message on the beach, I spent days just ... disconnected from everything. When I finally pulled myself together, I decided that I'd never give up trying to find a way back." Rose held back her tears as she felt him squeeze her closer into his side. 

He had spent months trying to find a way to get her back and had never found anything better than the one stupid crack to send her a message for two minutes. For weeks he hadn't slept and barely ate enough to stay alive; he'd been a wreck! Yet somehow, she had managed to make it through where he couldn't.

"And you did it. Where I failed, you found a way through the impossible." How had they managed it? How much did Rose work out on her own? How much help was Torchwood providing her before the crisis with the stars going out? Those kinds of answers could wait for now. Right now, he needed to focus on the two of them. Technicalities of the past could wait. "You never cease to amaze me, Rose Tyler."

They laid there quietly. Both contemplating very heavy thoughts while listening to each other's breathing and feeling the warmth of their embrace. The sun was just starting to rise outside and the sky was filled with pinks and purples through their window.

“Will you marry me, Rose? I've loved you more from the day we met than I ever felt for anyone else in 900 years. I've had close friends before as you know. Sarah Jane was one of my closest friends, but even that friendship never came close to what I feel for you, Rose. I told you that most Time Lord marriages were for political reasons, but there was a deeper form of marriage among the Gallifreyans that weren't Time Lords. It was a way of telepathically bonding minds and hearts together. It would make it possible to feel each other's presence in our minds all the time. We could feel where the other person is if we were separated and even feel strong emotions from each other at a distance. It would also mean that when we were touching, we could share thoughts and memories. As I said before though, it is very intimate and permanent. You would have to be sure that is what you wanted, forever.” He held his breath and looked deeply into her eyes as she tried to process all of this information.

“Is there a way you could show me what it would feel like before we made it permanent? I do want to marry you, Doctor, but I understand why you want me to really consider the permanence of this. We've been apart for a few years now and as much as we love each other, we can't risk jumping too far too fast.” She had thrown herself across dimensions for him, of course she wanted to marry him. But she did need to be careful before leaping straight into a permanent linking of minds without knowing what that would mean. Oh, who was she kidding? She was sure that she'd do this too if it was what he wanted, but it was a good idea to take this in steps... at least she probably should. They had both loved each other for so long, but had denied themselves the chance at more. Now they were going from zero to sixty all in one go.

“I've never bonded with anyone but the TARDIS like that before, so I can't say for sure what it will always feel like. But I can certainly make a temporary connection between us to share some memories and feelings, if you want.” His heart was beating so fast at just the idea of linking his mind with hers, even temporarily.

“I'd like that. Will we be able to talk to each other, like in our heads?”

“When we are in physical contact, yes. There is a deeper connection that is possible, but my people stopped doing it once we gained the ability to regenerate. It linked a couple so completely that if one of them died, the other person died too. But they could feel each other and telepathically communicate no matter the distance between them. There was only once that I know of where it was done between a couple that could regenerate and they discovered that if one of them met up with a regeneration from before they were bonded, they could still recognize the bond between each other. We certainly don't have to go as far as that kind of bond, my love, but I'll take anything you are willing to give.” There was no worry about not matching in regenerations or even meeting up with his past incarnations. It would be bliss to have that kind of connection with her.

“Let's start with the smaller connection for now, yeah? That sounds really special, Doctor, but we can take this one step at a time.”

“Of course.” He placed his fingers against her temples and sent a little telepathic knock to ask permission to enter her mind. Not quite knowing how to respond, she just nodded her head. Then she felt something like refreshing water and a warm hug all around her as he created the link. He basked in the golden glow of her mental presence. She was like sunshine warming his shattered soul and he never wanted to leave. They both sighed happily at the feeling of unity this created and she wrapped her arms around his neck to pull his forehead against hers and they both closed their eyes. He pushed towards her his memory of their walk together on Woman Wept under the towering frozen waves. He remembered her looking around at the sparkling, frozen planet in wonder and it had filled him with a renewed joy at exploring the universe even after the horrors of the Time War. She tried to send him some of her own memories from that day and felt a mental caress that told her she had done it right. That gave her the confidence to try and send him a different memory of her own. She pulled together all her thoughts and feelings from their arrival on New Earth when they sat together on his coat in the apple grass. The wave of affection she felt back from him was delightful and she could see why he craved a permanent connection with her so deeply. Sending her own feelings of love to him, she kissed him deeply. Not the desperate type of kiss they shared on the beach yesterday, but a slow exploration of his mouth with her lips and tongue. He kissed her back just as lovingly and they both felt the connection deepen with the contact. Oh, this was addictive... how would she ever want this to stop?

~'This is lovely, I could stay here forever,'~ thought Rose.

~'Mmmm, I agree, but we should probably think about getting ready to leave soon. Your mother will certainly be anxious to get on the zeppelin as soon as possible to go home.'~

She hadn't planned on starting a mental conversation with him, so she was a little surprised when he answered her. She giggled at the idea of holding secret conversations with him all the time. The purity and intensity of his feelings for her was easily apparent when they were connected like that. They could so easily find each other if they got separated or call each other for help when they travelled. Not to mention how easily they could avoid some of those miscommunications they'd had in the past over their feelings. As she thought about their relationship more, she considered the fact that he barely even knew his first wife. He and she both knew that they loved each other, had been very close and his people never had sex even if they were married. Cultural differences... no wonder he was asking her now. It seemed so sudden to her, but it really wasn't for him. They were already closer than he had ever been with anyone and it's not like he was ignorant about people... he's been interacting with people around the universe for centuries. They broke apart slowly and gazed into each other's eyes.

“Yes, Doctor. The answer is yes.” They both had happy tears in their eyes as they hugged each other tightly.

“Well, let's get ourselves cleaned up for the day so I can find a way to get you a ring in the custom of your people before we bind ourselves together in the custom of mine. I'd hate to deprive your mother of the opportunity to plan a wedding.” Taking her hand, they walked together to the shower. As steam filled the room, they slowly undressed and took their time washing, caressing and exploring each other's bodies as if they had all the time in the world. By the time they dried off and redressed in their clothing from the day before, Jackie had left three messages on Rose's mobile and they made their way downstairs to find her.


	2. Hello, Spaceman

Chapter Two – Hello, Spaceman

The ride back to London on the zeppelin was filled with chatter from Jackie about their lives since arriving in this universe. About Pete and Torchwood and Tony. About how they would have to create an identity for him here just like they did for Rose three years ago. He had to think about that a bit. He didn't have a TARDIS to just leave in and he couldn't just sonic cash points for the rest of their lives, nor did he want to have them living off of Pete's money. Rose had been working for Torchwood, but he wasn't sure if she wanted to go back to it or if he would want to join her there. They had always travelled. Settling in one place just didn't feel right somehow. Of course, if that was what she wanted, he would find a way to make it work. Something else to add to the list of heavy discussions.

When the zeppelin landed on the roof of the Torchwood building, Pete and Tony were there to greet them. Tony ran into his mother's arms and Jackie kissed him noisily. When she finally let him down, he rushed over to Rose but paused a few steps away to take in the stranger holding her hand. “Tony, I'd like you to meet the Doctor.” Rose reached out to take his hand and pull him closer to them.

“Really? The space man from the stories? Are you gonna go away in his box again?” The little strawberry blond boy looked at his sister sadly begging her not to leave with his eyes.

The Doctor took the chance to answer this time, kneeling down to see him eye to eye. “Yes, Tony. I really am the space man, but I left my box behind so that I could stay with your sister. My TARDIS doesn't work here, so we won't be leaving the planet. We'll probably still travel a lot, but we'll always come back to visit you.” The Doctor looked towards Rose with hope in his eyes at the mention of travelling and her encouraging smile warmed his single heart. 

“For now, Tony, I think mum would like to take you home for cuddles and I need to take the Doctor shopping for some more clothes and such. He didn't have a chance to pack his jim jams and we've both been wearing the same clothes for far too long.” She squeezed the Doctor's hand when he rolled his eyes over the idea of shopping, but he nodded conceding that he would probably at least need a few things. The other Doctor certainly hadn't given him any warning to go fill his pockets with necessities before throwing them both out the door.

Pete and Jackie had been watching the conversation nearby and while Jackie would have loved to bundle them all up together, she could never manage to tie those two down. “Alright, Rose, but I expect you both over for supper tomorrow and so Pete can start working on all the papers for that alien of yours. We've hardly seen you at all the last few months.”

At that, Rose pulled the Doctor towards the lifts that would take them down to the parking garage where her car was left after her last dimension jump. As the lift travelled down, she nudged him with her elbow and said, “Watch out for the disinfectant.” He smirked back at her as she gave him a tongue in teeth grin. When they made it down to the parking garage, she tugged him along happily towards her space. At the sight of her deep blue sports car, his mouth hung open for a moment. She giggled at him and his face broke into his usual manic grin.

“I don't suppose you'd let me drive?” he asked as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Do you even know where we're going?” She jingled the keys in front of him as she danced around the car to the driver's side door. He playfully grabbed at the keys but acknowledged that he really didn't know where they were going and climbed into the passenger seat for now.

Their shopping spree took on the pace of the life they used to lead. Running and laughing through the store, they grabbed suits, pants, socks and new Converse. Rose had her arms full with shirts and ties while the Doctor studied the various brands of hair gel and toothpaste. They could barely fit it all into the car when they were done, but they were fairly confident that they wouldn't need to do that kind of shopping again for some time.

On their way to Rose's flat, they stopped to pick up some food since Rose had emptied her fridge with plans to never return again. She kept the flat just in case it didn't work out. And had she never returned, her parents could always take care of all that later, but she had left very little in the way of food. She had also never really collected much in the way of personal items during her fight to make her way back to him. So, with enough groceries for breakfast and a bag of fish and chips for dinner, Rose unlocked the door to the flat.

The Doctor took in their surroundings as Rose put things away in the kitchen and took out dishes for supper. It was all very neutral... as if she never changed anything from the way it came when she rented it. Her bookshelf was filled with texts on physics, astronomy, and countless other complex subjects. The furniture was sparse and utilitarian and her coffee table was covered in technical schematics and notes. There were a few photos on the wall of her mum, dad and brother, but what caught his eye the most was the bulletin board that was covered in what looked like photos from her phone. Photos from their travels that she had printed. There were pictures of his previous self with her and Jack, pictures from Christmas right after he regenerated, of their trip to the Olympics and that was just to name a few.

Rose walked into the living room with a couple plates of food and a bottle of Vitex under each arm. She settled onto the couch and put the food on the coffee table. Noticing what had caught his attention, she shared with him how important that board was to her. “I was lucky that I didn't erase the pictures on my phone very often and that the technology here was compatible enough to print them. It was my inspiration to keep on fighting. It reminded me what I was fighting for.”

“It's lovely.” The Doctor touched one of his favourite pictures. One where they were looking at each other lovingly while wearing silly paper crowns. “When you were gone, I'd spend hours sitting in your room on the TARDIS and looking at the pictures you had tucked into the edges of your mirror. I'd just close my eyes in there and imagine you were still with me.” He turned toward her with his hands in his pockets and she could see the sadness in his eyes at remembering their time apart. 

“I went back to your mum's flat after you were gone and took all of the photo albums and mementos, just in case there was some way to get them back to you or at least so it wouldn't all be thrown away. I couldn't take it all of course or it would be suspicious that it had been emptied when you both disappeared. But even that is all lost to us now.” He didn't bother mentioning the number of times that he slept on her bed or just lay there staring at her ceiling wondering if there was anything he could have done to prevent what had happened.

“It's ok, Doctor. We'll just have to make new memories together. I'm glad those things weren't thrown away, even if we'll never see them again. I'm sure the old girl will take good care of them.” Ever since the game station, Rose had come to love the TARDIS almost as much as the Doctor did and the TARDIS loved Rose as well. 

“Of course she will.” They both settled on the couch to eat their food and chatted lightly about some of the differences between this Earth and the one in their home universe. When they were both done eating, they snuggled close and she settled her head on his shoulder.

“Do you want to go back to working at Torchwood, Rose? I know we need to think about money and be responsible and stuff, but we aren't exactly nine to five type people.” He cringed internally at the very idea of alarm clocks and rush hour traffic.

“No, Doctor. I never really fit in there. They'd never trust me to work on my own since I wouldn't carry a gun on field assignments and I spent most of my time working on the dimension cannon.” She thought for a moment about what they could do as an alternative. “Maybe we could help them out a bit with sorting the archives and improving their translation software? Save some money that way and then just have them consult us when they need help? We could travel anywhere in the world if you want. I know it's just one planet, but it's ours to explore.” She had been studying a lot, but she wasn't technically qualified for anything better than working in a shop. She worked at Torchwood only because they knew about her unique experiences with the Doctor and that knowledge was invaluable.

“I knew we were meant for each other. Neither of us is meant to settle in one place for long. I was stuck on Earth for a few years in my third incarnation. The Time Lords were angry with me for interfering and changed the dematerialization codes on the TARDIS. So, I spent the time working with UNIT as their scientific advisor. I'm sure we could manage as freelance consultants for Torchwood.” The Doctor kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair gently. “I know you said yes to bonding with me telepathically, Rose, but do you want to wait until we can plan a human ceremony or would you like to do it sooner?”

“I love you, Doctor. Having you in my mind was a wonderful feeling and I don't think I want to wait to have that closeness with you. We've already waited so long and we both know what can happen when you take that time together for granted.” They probably SHOULD wait a while, but they had already waited so long. They knew how they felt, they had both admitted it and she could feel it when he had linked their minds together before. She knew when she started blasting herself across dimensions that there was never going to be anyone else for her.

“Oh, my precious Rose. I never want to waste another day. You need to know that this is permanent. We will always be aware of each other and feel the other's strong emotions, no matter how far away.”

“I think, Doctor, that I want that deeper connection you talked about. Where we could always communicate with each other, even when we aren't touching?” When had they ever done anything halfway? They were the Stuff of Legend and they would dive into their new lives together full bore. Tears filled his eyes as he said that musical phrase in Gallifreyan that he had said to her last night. He kissed her reverently as he held her face in his hands. When he pulled away, they both had tearful smiles.

“I only wish that we could have bonding pendants like the ones shared on Gallifrey. They were made from special stones that were only found there, so I guess we'll just have to be happy with rings instead. We'll go look for some tomorrow, my love.” She nodded as he placed her fingers against his temples and did the same for her. “Just think of me. Think of all the good times from the moment we met until now. Think about how you feel about me and even though it hurts, think about those harder times and how it felt when we were separated. All of those feelings are important in forming this bond because from now on, we will feel all of those things together.”

Once again, Rose felt that refreshing warm hug surround her consciousness and make her feel safe and loved. Memories flashed between both of them from the time he took her hand and told her to run, to the basement in Cardiff with the Gelth, dancing in a hospital while hiding from gas mask zombies and seeing her bathed in golden light on the game station. The images flashed faster and stronger as they progressed from there. There was the joy of travelling together to New Earth. There was pain from their separation from clockwork droids and misunderstandings. They had grown closer after their first trip to Pete's World and memories of werewolves and televisions and Olympics flew by as their thoughts slammed into the memories of the lever room. Tears leaked from both their eyes as they recalled those painful moments. They shared with each other the grief they both felt during their time apart and as they flashed through up to the shared kiss on the beach, they both felt their connection to each other snap tightly into place. Never again would they be alone and Rose heard something echo through her mind. Another musical, ancient something that she was sure was more Gallifreyan.

~'That is my name. Known only to my wife and never to be spoken. You may not even feel like you could say it, but it will always be there in your mind.'~

~'It's beautiful, Doctor. I wish I had something as special to share with you.'~

~'Oh, Rose. Sharing your mind, your heart and your life with me is more special than you could possibly imagine.'~

They kissed to seal their bond and held each other close. They revelled in the feeling of keeping those warm mental embraces even as they separated and cleaned up their supper dishes. They put away all of his new clothes in their room and smiled at each other through their nightly routine as they got ready for bed.


	3. Shall We Dance

Chapter Three – Shall We Dance?

“So Doctor, is there anything I should know about Gallifreyan 'dancing' that might be a bit different from what I'm used to?” Rose tugged him gently towards the bed and gave him a teasing grin.

He rubbed the back of his neck as he blushed a bit. “Well.... not really different, although I'm sure with our connection, the sensations might be a little more intense. Well, I say a little, but it will probably be quite a bit more intense.” She could feel his nervousness as well as a hint of fear which was a bit confusing. He had told her that he'd 'danced' before, so what was he so nervous about?

“Doctor, what's wrong? You do want to, don't you?”

“YES! Yes, of course I do! It's just that, well... I told you that this wasn't done on Gallifrey to produce children... not really done at all as far as I know. Taboo subject to be sure.” He started running his fingers through his hair now and mussing it up in a way that she wanted to be doing right now.

“But you told me that you've done this before?”

“Well, yes... once or twice, but it was more of a situation where it was that or be executed. Not exactly ideal situations to be sure. I know how it all works and such and believe me Rose, I have wanted this with you for so long, but it may take me some time to get everything quite right.” There were a few books that he had skimmed once or twice and from the stories that Jack used to tell, he could probably make detailed diagrams. But practical experience was another matter altogether. Would he match up to a human lover?

“Of course, Doctor. Don't worry yourself about it. It's... well, it's been a while for me as well. I haven't been with anyone since I met you. It hardly compares with centuries, but this doesn't have to be rushed and it doesn't have to be perfect. It's a new something for us to learn, yeah?” She gave him a comforting hug and pulled him with her to sit on the edge of the bed.

Rose tried to push towards him feelings of reassurance, love and desire. She felt his fear slide away, although the nervousness was still lingering. She pulled off the t shirt she had put on when she got ready for bed and kissed him as she brought his hand up to touch her. He gently explored her body with his hands just as they had done in the shower at the hotel. She tangled the fingers of one hand into his hair as the other found its way downwards towards his bum (both of which she had long been admiring). Their lips separated and his kisses started trailing down her neck towards her chest and he gently guided her to lay down on the pillows. She was still wearing her knickers and he had a pair of boxers on, but he pressed his hips against hers as he kissed and licked and sucked on her breasts. She dug her hands into his hair and thrust back against him, muttering encouragements and basking in the waves of desire she felt rolling through their connection. She tried to tug at his boxers, but found that she couldn't reach with their differences in height and his thorough attention towards her chest blocking her way.

~'Please, Doctor! I need you now!'~ She pushed a wave of impatience towards him in the hopes that he would get the idea.

His head popped up with a slightly dazed look on his face as he seemed to be trying to process what came next before he grinned at her and reached for her knickers. She moaned happily and wriggled her hips to help him take them off, then quickly grabbed for his bottoms before he could lie back down with her. She rolled on top of him to take some control over the situation and stroked her hands over his chest and abdominals. Making her way further south, she found him to be quite ready for her already. She rubbed herself against him as she slid up to meet his lips for a kiss and positioned their bodies perfectly. When they finally came together, they both closed their eyes and she shouted, “Yes!” as he choked out, “Oh Rose!” And after a few seconds to catch their breath, they began to move against each other, quickly finding their rhythm. The feelings flowing between them made it easy to know when the other enjoyed something and it wasn't long before they were both shouting out their release.

She pulled to duvet over them and snuggled into his side. They both sighed happily and gave each other sweet kisses. They chatted for a while about the lighter things that happened while they were apart. She told him about taking some classes and working with the researchers at Torchwood. He told her some of the details of happier trips with Martha and Donna. After another round of practice at what was sure to be one of their new favourite pass times, they fell asleep in a warm embrace and found themselves sharing the same dreams of walking happily through fields of red grass.

The Doctor awoke to find himself alone in bed, but smelled the most heavenly scent he could imagine.... Rose's banana pancakes. He found his boxers where they had been tossed across the room and made his way to the kitchen. From the doorway, he watched her hips sway as she prepared breakfast, clad only in her t shirt and knickers and a pair of pink, fluffy slippers. It was adorable and he couldn't resist hugging her from behind and placing a quick kiss to her neck.

“Good morning, sleepy head! It's not often that I wake up before you do.” She reached back to ruffle his hair and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

“Well, I was involved in some rather vigorous physical activities last night...” He sniffed haughtily and reached to straighten a tie that wasn't there, quickly slid his hands down to put in pockets that weren't there either and settled for clasping his hands behind his back and rocking on his heels.

“Are you saying that I wore you out, old man?” she said with a wink.

“Old?! Honestly, this body was created only two days ago. Now who's old by comparison?” Yes, his past was still his own, but this kind of playful teasing was just the way they were. Up until the moment the regeneration energy went into the hand, he and the Time Lord were exactly the same person. It was a split, perhaps an uneven one in the biology department, but still the same man.

“You still are, because new body or not, you are still over 900, husband.” She smiled teasingly as she flipped the last of the pancakes onto a plate and headed towards the table where tea and syrup were waiting for them. He giggled at her calling him husband and followed her to the table happily.

“Well, my darling wife, shall we let your mother take her time in planning our human ceremony or set her a deadline? We do need to do a little more shopping today.” He dug into his pancakes and sighed happily, savouring the flavours he hadn't tasted in years.

“It would probably be best to give her a bit of a deadline or she's liable to spend a year and a half organizing something to rival Princess Di's wedding back in our home universe. If we only give her a month or two, she'll be forced to keep things relatively simple.” Visions of puff pastry dresses and three inch heels made her cringe as she ran through thoughts of the most casual wedding locations she might be able to insist on.

“Hmm, well, I think I can survive a month and maybe by then we will be done with those initial project ideas we had for Torchwood and our honeymoon trip could kick off our little around the world exploration tour, eh?” They grinned at each other goofily as they each mentally added to the list of locations to visit. She decided to test this communicating mentally without touching by trying to send him an image of the two of them drinking big fruity drinks while lounging on a sunny beach. He raised his eyebrows at her and made a happy, giggly noise from the back of his throat, making her pretty sure that he got the message. He added to her idea by sending back an image of some of the other things they could do on a beach with a little less clothing in the way.

After tidying up from breakfast, a shared shower, a few false starts at getting dressed, followed by another needed shower, they finally made their way out for the day to go shopping. Rose had saved up a fair amount of money in her time at Torchwood since she didn't really spend much time socializing and had no desire to decorate her life with unneeded stuff that would just be left behind. It meant that they could browse the jewellery stores without too much concern over prices. Of course, neither of them were interested in anything too extravagant either. They settled on a lovely solitaire engagement ring for her and matching plain gold wedding bands for the pair of them. The Doctor had plans to do some engraving on them before the ceremony, but he'd keep that part to himself for now.

They found a nice little restaurant where they shared a plate of appetizers for lunch and spent perhaps a little to long licking crumbs and sauces off of each other's fingers. With the look of lovesick fools, they started walking around this parallel London while Rose pointed out some of the differences from their home universe. As the afternoon went on, they made their way back towards their flat to take the car to the Tyler mansion. This time, she let him drive as she gave him directions.

“This is a great car, Rose! I used to have a fantastic little car during the time I was stuck on Earth working for UNIT. It was bright yellow and I made all kinds of special improvements to it. I named it Bessy! Does your car have a name? I could make some modifications to it you know..”

“Doctor! You're rambling again. Are you nervous about going to my parents' place?”

“Well, it isn't so much about your family as it is about the prospect of discussing creating a human identity for me here. I suppose I'll just stick with the same name I've always used in similar situations, John Smith. It's served me well enough before. This is just feeling a lot more permanent than my previous uses of the name. Even when I was exiled to Earth, I knew it wasn't forever.” He felt a bit of apprehension from her and rushed to reassure her, “Oh, Rose! I'm not upset over being here with you permanently. It's just the idea of being tied down to that name and identity while knowing that it isn't really me.”

“I understand, Doctor. When we first came here and they made up the back story for where I came from, it all felt so phony and pointless. But, just like those other times that you've used the name John Smith, it's just a cover. The people who are important in our lives know exactly who we really are and that's what matters. You'll always be my Doctor.” He took her hand and twined their fingers together. Rose turned up the radio and they spent the rest of the drive singing along to Ian Drury.

They pulled into the driveway of the Tyler mansion and made their way up the front walk. Before they even reached the stairs, a blur of strawberry blond two year old was jumping into Rose's arms. “Oi, little man! What have you been up to today?”

“Mummy took me to the park to play on the swings and then I had a peanut butter and 'nana sandwich and then I played with my rocket ship and then I saw your car coming and came to get you to go colour with me!” Tony counted off his activities on his fingers while Rose carried him back towards the front door where Jackie was waiting to greet them.

“Come on, Tony! Give them a minute to get themselves in the door first!” Jackie took him back into her arms as she walked them through to the sitting room. The room was nicely decorated and homey. It was quite different from what the Doctor remembered when he last visited here as wait staff. Now it looked lived in rather than looking like an art gallery to show off their wealth. There were toys scattered on the floor and colouring books with a container filled with random crayons, coloured pencils and markers.

The Doctor sat down on the floor with Tony, eager to get to know his little brother-in-law. “I'll colour with you Tony-roni and we can let your mum and big sister chat for a bit.” Jackie eyed him warily, wondering at his sudden acceptance of 'domestics,' but sat on the couch with Rose where they could watch over the two of them.

“How are you doing, sweetheart? This isn't exactly what you were expecting right now.” Jackie fussed with the tea cups on the coffee table as she went into mother hen mode.

“We're doing just fine, mum. Settling in and making plans. It isn't what any of us were expecting, but it's going to be fantastic.” She smirked a bit at the wink the Doctor gave her when she said 'fantastic.' Suddenly, her mother's gaze landed on her left hand and her eyes went wide.

“What's this then? Already? You've barely been back here two days and you're already making those kind of plans?” Jackie was happy and all, but wasn't it a bit sudden?

“Oh, this coming from the woman who was marrying a parallel version of her twenty years dead husband within a week of getting here? Why did you think I was willing to risk my life throwing myself across the universe to get back to him? Don't think I can't do the math to figure out how quickly Tony was conceived!” She had been ready to stay behind with him in a different universe, did her mother not realize the level of commitment she had already shown towards him?

“Alright, alright... it's just a bit of a shock, that's all. I really am happy for you. Both of you.”

“Thank you, mum. Would you plan it for us? I know you love putting together those big parties now and we'd like to have the wedding soon. Maybe a month or so?” She fiddled with her new ring a bit, hoping they could get past this conversation without any big arguments from her mother.

“Oh, sweetheart, I'd love to! Only a month though? How am I supposed to get all the important people here so quickly? The president's calendar is always so busy and you know how all those Vitex people are. There's no time for a custom dress and the cake and...”

“Mum! Can't we just keep it small? I don't have a lot of friends here, but maybe a few coworkers and family?” Oh she had been hoping to avoid a media circus.

“But what about...” sensing the oncoming argument, The Doctor jumped in with his usual knack for talking his way out of difficult situations.

“Jackie! How about this? You get one month to put together however big or small an event as you can manage and we won't complain about all the people that we don't know, so long as we get to pick our own apparel? You can pick the food, the decorations, the cake, the music... all that typical human wedding type stuff and we will show up happy and on time and smile for all the silly paparazzi that try to crash the party. Sound good?” Hopefully they could avoid the future argument over the fact that they'd both want to be wearing trainers the whole day.

“Oh, I suppose so. I guess I should be happy that you aren't just running off to Vegas or something.”

~'If she only knew that we were already married according to your people,'~ Rose thought to him.

~'I know. If it weren't for that, I might just have dragged you off to Vegas for a drive-thru wedding!'~ He winked at her which was thankfully missed by Jackie as she ran off to grab her laptop to look up caterers and decorators.

Dinner was relatively peaceful, despite listening to Jackie going on and on about all her plans for their wedding. The Doctor and Rose amused themselves by having their own private mental conversation, teasing each other about banana flavoured wedding cakes and serving all the guests chips. At least (so far) Jackie seemed to have forgotten the stipulation of them choosing their own clothes.

After dinner, Pete asked Rose and the Doctor to join him in his study to go over a few things. “Well, it sounds like we'd better rush some of this along so that we can get you a marriage license and passports then. I don't suppose you've thought much about a job yet, Doctor?” Pete was shuffling through some of the papers on his desk as the Doctor sat down in the big leather chair opposite him and Rose crawled into his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. ~'Mmm... that's nice.'~

“Actually, Pete, we have been discussing that a bit. Rose and I have thought of a few quick but important projects we might be able to help Torchwood with up until the wedding and then, we had planned to work a little more freelance as needed. We really are more the travelling type.”

“What kind of projects?” Pete hoped his list of wants would match up a bit with what they had in mind before they disappeared again.

Rose jumped in here, since she was more aware of this Torchwood's needs than the Doctor was, “We can help sort through the alien technology to label it and dispose of anything really dangerous and the Doctor said he can help improve your translation software too.”

“Alright, I can see where those are definitely high on my priority list. How would the two of you feel about being our quick response team for things happening outside of our usual operating area? That does seem to be your usual style.” Pete was really hoping not to lose out on the Doctor's vast knowledge as a resource for Torchwood.

“Well, yes, I suppose we do have some experience in that area,” the Doctor agreed with a grin. “As long as you aren't expecting any kind of paperwork reports or anything, I'm sure we can find a way to swing in and save the day as needed.”

“Sounds good to me! Let's get the rest of this paperwork in order and see if we can find a way to delegate the recording of events to a clean-up crew.”

They managed to come up with a plausible back story for the Doctor that they could feed to the media and arranged for his identification, passport, bank accounts and Torchwood ID cards. With plans to meet up at Torchwood the next day, Rose and the Doctor said their goodbyes and made their way back home.


	4. Cannons and Cameras

Chapter Four – Cannons and Cameras

When Rose and the Doctor arrived at Torchwood the next day, she led him straight to the room containing the Dimension Cannon. She wanted to show him just what she managed to achieve as well as have him understand how they managed to get through. The Cannon consisted of a gun/laser looking machine aimed towards a raised platform and connected to several computers. At first, they tried to use Rose's TARDIS key to aim the Cannon, but once they noticed the patterns around Donna's timelines, they started aiming for her directly. She recalled suddenly that THIS Doctor wasn't around for that particular discussion on the TARDIS, so she sent the memory towards him to help explain a little while he studied the equipment.

“This is amazing work, Rose! How many people were working on this?” He couldn't believe how advanced some of the science behind this was. The ability to measure timelines the way they did was unheard of. His glasses perched on his nose as he peered at the various computer screens.

“At first, it was just me and Mickey. No one else really had any reason to want to connect to another universe again. We started out just figuring out how the old hopper buttons worked. I had to do quite a bit of studying to get my head around those, but then I got the ideas for the Dimension Cannon and started drawing up some plans. It was all pretty rough to start with, but when the stars started going out, well... they put together a team of three more scientists to help us refine it all.”

“You came up with this?! Wow, Rose... just.... wow.” How had she managed this? She was brilliant as far as he was concerned, but as brilliant as she was, she had lacked in formal education. The level of study to even theorize this kind of scientific theory should have been impossible in the time she spent here. He thought about all of the text books filling her shelves at home and realized that they weren't just an attempt at understanding, she had really absorbed it all. Rose could feel his curiosity and awe at her accomplishments. 

“I know.... I'm not sure how I managed to figure it all out. I never used to be good at this kind of stuff, but it all just kind of made sense all of a sudden. I was the only one to use the Cannon most of the time. Any of the other people that tried it ended up feeling really sick and that was dangerous because where we landed wasn't always the safest place. There wasn't time to be off your game when you got there. I was the only one that wasn't affected like that on the jumps, so it was mostly just me.” Taking the time to look away from the timeline measuring equipment, the Doctor spent a few moments studying how they managed the teleportation part of it all.

“Well, it's no wonder they were feeling ill, that's worse than travel by vortex manipulator! How many times did you go through this thing? It could scramble your insides!” He got an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach, what was going on with her? How had she not been physically affected by this? It would have been fine for him, sure (superior biology and all that), but she was just human.... wasn't she? Of course she was.

“I dunno... once or twice a day in the beginning. Then, once we made better progress with finding the right universe, we just pushed through as often as we could until I needed to sleep for a bit now and then. We had to find you as quickly as possible; Things were getting worse everyday.” His glasses went back in his pocket, he pinched the bridge of his nose, and closed his eyes as he listened to her.

“Once or twice a day?! For how long? Half a dozen jumps should have almost killed you with this thing!” He was pulling on his hair now and pacing the room.

“Calm down, Doctor! I was fine. I always felt just fine and the medical team checked me out after every jump. There was never a thing wrong with me. Our first jump was about a year ago or so. It was so frustrating at first, but we had to keep going.” He pulled her into a desperate hug. She should be dead. She should never have survived that kind of abuse, but their medical equipment didn't find anything wrong with her somehow. Rose could feel his worry for her as his mind desperately swirled with ideas of what could be going on with her. She rubbed his back while he clutched her tighter against himself. After taking a few calming breaths, he tried to figure out what to do about this.

“Ok... Rose, I'd like to do a few tests of my own on you if that's alright? I'm really worried about you, love and I don't know what they may have missed!”

“Alright Doctor, if it will make you feel better. Let's head over to that department and you can see what equipment they have that might be useful. Please believe me when I say that I feel perfectly fine. I know you think that I shouldn't be, but I am.”

“I know, Rose. I do believe you, but it should be impossible for you to have survived all that, let alone be completely unaffected. Something is going on and where your health and safety is concerned, I'm not going to take any chances.”

Using her own clearance as well as a few orders straight from the Director (being her dad), one of the advanced medical labs was cleared of everyone but the Doctor and Rose. Blood tests, an MRI, EEG and a few scans using specialized alien equipment that even the Torchwood specialists weren't quite sure how to use, all yielded very little information. Something was going on with Rose and all of this (by his standards) low tech equipment wasn't helping him to find out what it was. Even his sonic was only set up to do a basic medical scan. Without knowing what specifically to look for, there wasn't much else that he could do. According to all of these tests, she was perfect... perhaps too perfect? Hmm... there was a thought, what could cause that? It was time for a break to clear their heads. They made their way to the cafeteria for some lunch before they had to meet up with Pete regarding the Doctor's identification paperwork.

As they made their way through the cafeteria hand in hand, Rose noticed several people staring. Ok, so her walking hand in hand with a man was slightly unusual from their perspective. But when she saw Jake smirking at her, she knew there was something more going on. As the couple got closer to him, he looked down and shook his head.

“What is it, Jake?” Something seemed to be exceedingly funny to him and she wasn't sure quite what it might be.

“Did the two of you even notice the number of paparazzi taking your pictures yesterday? Or were you too busy making puppy dog eyes at each other?”

Rose groaned and planted her face against the Doctor's chest. Shortly after her arrival here three years ago, the papers had all decided that the mysterious Vitex heiress was just plain boring and left her alone. It would figure that as soon as she was seen with a man on her arm, they would all pounce on it. And they had been a little to wrapped up in each other yesterday to take notice. That was entirely unlike them, however. They were usually experts at noticing people following or acting out of the ordinary. But having been newly reunited with a fresh telepathic marriage bond, perhaps they could be excused from being a bit, well... distracted.

“Paparazzi? What in the world would they be taking pictures of us for?” The Doctor was used to being just another face in the crowd until he was needed to save everyone.

“Dad is the head of Vitex and Torchwood. Rich and famous! It was all over the news when mum and I showed up here. Then they decided that the little book worm with no boyfriends or social life was boring and they left me alone. Not enough scandal.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and batted her eyelashes at him.

“Well, if there's one thing that you and I could do very well, Rose, it's create a scandal. Just ask good old Queen Vicki! Ha!” This could be fun actually. Pranks, misdirection...

“How bad is it this time, Jake? Should I avoid talking to my mum for a few days or are they making it out to be sappy and romantic?” He handed her one of the more prominent magazines and walked off to get some lunch wearing a cheshire cat grin. “Why don't you go grab some food for us, Doctor and I'll find a table while I assess the damage, yeah?”

“Absolutely, my love. I wouldn't worry about it too much with regards to your mother. Catch the attention of one of the bridal magazines instead and she'll forget all about that rubbish.” He kissed her cheek and made his way to fill a couple of plates with what looked to be the most edible of the offerings.

Rose flipped through the gossip rag to see what kind of pictures were published. As much as they were obviously enthralled with each other in the photos, it would rot your teeth with how sweet it all was. Some zoomed in on her glittering engagement ring and surrounded all their pictures with hearts and wedding bells. Well, at least her mother wasn't likely to be upset about it all. It wasn't making her out to be knocked up or drunk or anything. And the Doctor was right about the bridal magazines too... she was likely going to have designers fighting to get her to wear their dresses. When did the Doctor become such an expert on her mother's reactions? She supposed it came down to nine centuries of being around people in general to be able to predict their behaviours. He might sometimes pretend to be clueless to make his opponent think he was harmless, but that was never the case. There was a reason he could usually talk his way out of almost anything.

“So, what's the verdict?” Rose looked up when her husband set a tray on the table between them, filled with sandwiches, fruit and coffee.

“Oh, it's not so bad. Glittery hearts and rainbows sort of thing really. They're all just surprised because they've never seen me with anyone since I got here. The beautiful Vitex heiress that turns down every offer and works herself to death. No one in this world has ever seen me the way I am with you.” She smiled at him lovingly as she stirred some cream and sugar into her coffee.

“Well, then it's high time that they saw just how gorgeous that real Rose Tyler smile can be. What do you say to making a few more papers by spending a night out on the town with me? Hmm? Paint the town mauve?” He winked at her and took a big bite of his sandwich. Rose laughed at him as she considered it.

“We might have to wait for a day or two. Not much exciting to do on a Monday night. Besides, we should let them all have some time to chew on all the pictures they took yesterday. Best give Pete some time to get your back story out there too before they all start snooping on who my mystery man is.” Rose knew that Pete had been working on getting his ID ready, but it wasn't like when Pete's long lost daughter had arrived on the scene and they needed to make press releases and such. The Doctor's back story just had him working far away and finally able to join her from abroad. No press releases necessary really, except perhaps an engagement announcement, but it seemed the gossip rags took care of that already too.

Once they had finished their lunch, they made their way up to Pete's office. He handed the Doctor a large manila envelope containing his Torchwood ID cards, driver's license, passport, bank card, etc. He also found a contract with details on what would be expected of them as freelance consultants for Torchwood while they were travelling. They sorted through all of the necessary papers and each of them signed things where needed. They had managed to arrange a couple of doctorate degrees in the name of John Smith as well, so if he just went by Doctor, it would at least be considered his proper title.

“Don't forget about the charity ball on Thursday, Rose,” Pete reminded her.

“Oh! Was that this week? Well, I guess I wasn't really paying much attention to upcoming events. What time was it again?” Rose hadn't bothered with keeping a calendar the last few months. What did she care if she was leaving anyway?

“I thought you might have forgotten about it. We'll bring a car around to pick you two up at 7. Until then, you two can spend your time here taking apart the Dimension Cannon and sorting through some of the artifacts downstairs. I'll see you both back tomorrow, now go take a break. You've been working yourself ragged lately, Rose.” Pete shook the Doctor's hand and gave Rose a hug before they left for the day.

The week went by quickly as they both contemplated what kind of trouble they could get into at the upcoming charity event. Rose figured she'd best find a nice pair of flats, there would probably be running.


	5. Wonderful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Take a moment to listen to the song "Wonderful Tonight" before reading this. I can't stop giggling whenever I hear it now.

Chapter Five - Wonderful

It was getting late and Rose was still wondering what dress to wear to the charity ball. She had found her pretty black flats, but couldn't decide between her black dress or the bright blue one. She thought about the Doctor's comment the other day about deliberately causing a scandal and grabbed the blue one. It was backless and covered in sparkles... much more the look of an heiress than the safe black cocktail dress.

She applied her makeup carefully. She never wore it quite as heavy as she used to when she first started travelling with the Doctor. Then she carefully brushed out her blond hair into soft waves. She noticed him standing in the doorway wearing a lovely tuxedo and asked him, “Do I look alright?”

The Doctor took her hand and kissed it. They stared into each other's eyes and he said with a deep loving voice, “Yes, you look wonderful tonight.”

Pete had offered to pick them up in his car, but they wanted to have the option of leaving early, so the Doctor was driving her little, blue sports car. It was certainly flashy enough that it wouldn't be out of place with the limos and such.

When they got to the party, the paparazzi were there in force. They were almost blinded by the flashes going off, but smiled and made their way inside. They chatted with all the important people and ate the nibbles being served. Finally, they made their way onto the dance floor. “Whew! I'm glad I wore flats tonight or my feet would be killing me by now. How about you, Doctor? Do you feel alright? At least you got to wear trainers with your tux.”

“Oh, I can make trainers look good with just about anything! I feel wonderful tonight and you, my love, look absolutely gorgeous.” They danced around the floor, once again looking like lovesick teenagers, until they heard shouting coming from the kitchen. They both grinned and ran towards the commotion. It turned out, there was a group of little furry aliens that had crashed nearby and came in the open kitchen door when they smelled food. The staff had panicked of course and one of the aliens scurried under the buffet table out in the main hall. The Doctor was crawling under the table after it while making soft trilling noises similar to what the aliens were doing with each other. Rose assumed it must be their language and tried to keep the other aliens calm while the Doctor retrieved the one that ran off. She was feeding them vegetables and breadsticks when he came back holding a fuzzy little creature and rubbing the back of his head.

“What happened? Did you hurt yourself?” She could feel from their link that he was more embarrassed than hurt.

“Bumped my head on the underside of the table. There is a Torchwood team here to take these little guys somewhere safe for tonight. I'll look at trying fix their ship tomorrow. Can we go home now? I think I've had enough shmoozing for one night.” He was still rubbing his head and had a bit of the look of a kicked puppy.

“Yeah, I think we can manage to sneak out of here.” He handed her the car keys as they made their way back towards the valet.

“Are you sure you're ok, Doctor? If you hit it really hard, maybe we should go get it checked out?” Rose put her hand on his shoulder and stood on her toes to try and get a better look at the back of his head.

“I'm fine, sweetheart. It's just combining the bump on the head with their language. Speaking Tribble is really not my favourite pass time.”

She drove them back home and helped him up the stairs. They both climbed into bed and snuggled together. As he reached over to turn off the light on the nightstand, he kissed her forehead and told her, “My darling, you were wonderful tonight.”

They both settled in a warm embrace and sighed happily. Just as Rose was about to fall asleep though, the Doctor realized something important. “Rose, you didn't feed them did you?”


	6. Tribble-ations

Chapter Six – Tribble-ations 

It took two days for them to finally round up and contain all of the Tribbles from Torchwood. The Doctor had a heck of a time convincing some of the employees that it was definitely NOT a good idea to keep one or two as pets. He had repaired their ship quite easily and while it was a tight squeeze getting all of the new Tribbles into the ship with the original group, they were used to being a bit crowded, so they didn't complain at all. Taking some paracetamol to ease his head after two days of trilling at them to help them understand what was going on, he sighed and flopped back in the chair in Rose's office.

“I'm sorry, Doctor. I didn't know that I shouldn't feed them. I mean, what kind of animal wouldn't need to eat once in a while?” She knew he wasn't really upset with her, he was just stressed over trying to herd Tribbles for the past two days. He could speak their language and while most of the employees at Torchwood found their sounds to be cute and soothing, he told her that their chatter was actually quite annoying when you knew what it all meant. He said it was kind of like listening to that abominable snow monster on Bugs Bunny for two days straight. No wonder his head hurt.

“It's alright, love. You couldn't have known... well, if you had been half the Trekkie that I thought you were after calling me Spock before, you might have known. Did you ever even watch Star Trek?” It had been a terrible mistake when those Tribbles had made their way onto that TV set, but the writers and actors thought it was hilarious. Getting those Tribbles off of Earth was even harder, but at least he could stuff them all into a room on the TARDIS instead of back into one of their little ships then. Convincing William Shatner to stop feeding the darn things had been a nightmare.

“Not really, no. A little before my time, yeah? They had Tribbles on Star Trek?”

“Similar type of situation actually. They crashed near the TV studio and the writers thought it would make for a great episode.” Rose stood behind his chair and massaged his shoulders. He groaned at her touch and his head fell forward as he relaxed more.

“Let's get out of here for today. It's Saturday and the invasion of the fluffy, purring things is over. We deserve a break. So what would you like to do once your head clears a bit?” She wouldn't mind going out to a movie or taking up that offer from the other day to go out, but she figured that maybe the event on Thursday would be enough of that kind of thing for him for a while. What other kind of trouble could they get into for now?

“Hmmm... what would I like to do with the love of my lives after spending two days rounding up fluffy little rodents? I have a few ideas... let's see if you agree...” He sent her a few rather explicit images along with a mental caress that tickled her in a very alluring way. He stood up to take her in his arms and give her a thorough snog. Her knees went rather weak from all of this and it was only his arms that kept her from falling over rather ungracefully. Gasping for breath and looking quite discombobulated, Rose could only nod as she looked into his eyes. He had a very self-satisfied smirk on his face from making her so flustered all of a sudden.

They made their way to the lift and as soon as the door closed, Rose found herself pinned against the wall by the Doctor giving her the snog of her life. She grabbed at his hair and groaned into his mouth. He returned the sound while grinding his hips against hers. The sound of the door opening made them both jump apart just in time to see a few other Torchwood employees snickering at them. They both gazed at the ceiling for the rest of the ride down to the parking garage.

Rose drew gentle circles on his leg the whole drive back home and by the time they made it in the door, they were both ripping each others clothes off. The images they were sending back and forth in their minds had them both breathing heavily, but Rose won the race to get his clothes off faster than he could get at hers and she dropped to her knees in front of him. He stumbled back against the wall as he tried to catch his breath. In all of his lives, he had never done this before and wondered why the hell not. She was licking, sucking, touching and humming her appreciation while he struggled to get his brain to work at all. It wasn't long before he was shouting her name and fell to his knees on the floor with her. Once he regained his senses, the Doctor quickly got back on his feet and threw Rose over his shoulder. She squealed happily and he gave a playful swat to her bum.

Once they made it to their bedroom, he gently laid her on the bed and removed the rest of her clothes. He decided that he definitely wanted to return the favour she had so expertly given him. Pulling her legs open wider, he settled himself between them and gave her a filthy grin as he slowly ran his fingers along her sex. “You are so gorgeous, my love. Everything about you is absolutely exquisite.” He set about pleasing her thoroughly using his tongue and fingers, drawing words of love and devotion in circular Gallifreyan with his tongue over her clit. She screamed his name and when she couldn't bear anymore stimulation, tugged at his hair to bring him up to lie beside her.

The rest of their evening was spent in similar activities interspersed with snuggling, bathing and snacking until they both fell asleep.


	7. A Nice Day For...

Chapter Seven – A Nice Day For...

The next few weeks passed quite quickly and they had indeed finished sorting through much of the archived alien technology stored at Torchwood and the Doctor had added several thousand more languages to their translation software (as well as correcting some that they already had) before their wedding day came around. It meant that they were planning the beginning of their honeymoon without any end to it in sight. They decided to start in Barcelona (the city this time, not the planet) and just make it up as they went along from there. They had made a rough list of some of the things that they wanted to see at some point in their travels and they did their packing in backpacks that would be easy to carry no matter what methods of transportation they used.

The Doctor dressed in the tux and trainers combination that he had become known for at the few formal occasions they had attended. Rose's dress was white satin and in many ways resembled the pretty pink dress she wore during their adventure with the Wire. It was longer though and covered her white trainers. They definitely weren't allowing anyone to separate them for the night before the ceremony (as far as they were concerned they were already married anyway). So, once they were ready, they showed up as promised at the Tyler mansion, smiling and on time.

The backyard was filled with blue and white flowers, a large tent for the reception, and several rows of white chairs were set up facing a small white arbour covered with more flowers. Rose and the Doctor didn't really have close friends in this universe. They were friendly with everyone at Torchwood of course, but choosing people to stand with them for the ceremony was not an easy task. In the end, they decided on Jake standing for the Doctor and, one of the scientists that had helped Rose with the Dimension Cannon, Toshiko to stand for Rose. Both Jackie and Pete were going to give her away since it would look odd not to have Pete give her away, but Rose definitely wanted her mother (who had raised her on her own for her whole life). There was a string quartet playing the Four Seasons as guests arrived and the Doctor was guided to stand next to the officiant with Jake.

The guests in attendance were mostly people from Torchwood and Vitex, friends of Pete and Jackie for the most part although there were a few government officials (even if the President herself couldn't make it). Once they had all taken their seats, the quartet began to play Pachelbel's Canon. The french doors from the house opened and Tony started skipping down the aisle carrying a pillow with the rings tied to it. Toshiko followed shortly after wearing a royal blue dress and carrying white flowers. The Doctor was practically vibrating with excitement knowing that they had included a few things in the ceremony that would have been included in marriages on Gallifrey (like a handfasting and formal consent as her parents gave her away). They were already bonded of course, but it was nice to mix both of their cultures for these formal declarations. He had used his sonic screwdriver to engrave both of their rings with the word 'forever' in circular Gallifreyan (the form of the word that encompassed all regenerations as well as any afterlife that may exist). Rose hadn't seen the inscriptions yet, but he was sure she would love it. He thought about the day they had watched the sunset in a pink sky filled with giant flying manta ray type creatures and promised each other to stay together forever. The memory made his heart swell with love and he sent the memory towards Rose where she waited inside for her chance to come down the aisle. He felt her give him a mental caress and her nervous excitement made him feel a little giddy.

Finally, she was there, standing in the doorway with Pete on one arm and Jackie on the other. All eyes were on the beautiful bride, but Rose and the Doctor only had eyes for each other. The rest of the world fell away from their awareness as they went through the motions of the ceremony, most of it was all very boring really. Until, of course, they came to their vows.

“This is our wedding day,”Rose began.

“The day we have looked forward to for so long,” continued the Doctor.

“I come to you reverently this day, desiring to be your wife.”

“I come to you reverently this day, desiring to be your husband.”

“Because of our love, we will be blessed with the joys and comforts of marriage.”

“Because of our love, we will endure all trials and cares.”

“I will respect and honour you,” Rose found tears had started gathering in her eyes.

“I will cherish and protect you,” the Doctor squeezed her hands gently.

“I will be a tender and affectionate wife.”

“I will be a patient and understanding husband.”

Together, they finished, “With all of these witnesses, I commit myself to you for all the days of our lives. From this day forward, and forevermore.”

The rest of it all passed through a blur of tears until they were granted permission to kiss. Rose found herself dipped back in her husband's arms and breathlessly tried to compose herself to walk back down the aisle towards the house. Once they were inside, her husband picked her up in a tight hug and swung her around in circles as they both laughed.

They did their best to behave during all the formal photographs, but once they crossed the doorway into the tent for the reception, they were both wearing mischievous smiles. They couldn't get into too much trouble right away as all eyes were on them when they entered, but they were having a silent conversation about all of the trouble they could cause throughout the evening. And if, by the end of it all, there was a bit of a food fight at the head table, the cake had some frosting missing before it was cut and the bubble machine by the dance floor seemed a little more sonic, who was to say that it was their fault? They were on a zeppelin towards Barcelona before the last guest even left the reception.

They happily sipped champagne on the zeppelin and the Doctor told Rose the story about when Donna found him while investigating Adipose Industries. They both laughed about their silent conversation through the windows and waving at floating fat babies. While Rose was happy to hear about some of those fun times, it made her wonder a bit about happy times from before he met her.

“Doctor, would you tell me about some of your adventures from before we met? Like when you travelled with Sarah Jane or Susan or something? I'd really like to know more about all the events that made you who you are now. I mean, you pretty much know about most of my life... you knew enough to bring me a bicycle for Christmas when I was 12, you know about dropping out of school to move in with Jimmy and you know about Mickey. I'd like to know more about you and your friends and stuff.” She fiddled nervously with her rings, hoping he wouldn't think she was asking too much or pushing him to remember something painful about his people. With a finger under her chin, he tipped her face up to look at him and smiled.

“Of course, love. Let's see... a whirlwind tour of my various faces and companions to start? Then you can ask about more of it all later. You know, with our bond as deep as it is, if we were in our original universe and happened to run across a past version of me, he would feel our connection too. That might be awkward.”

“Or rather fun,” she winked.

“Well, I think I'm rather happy then that we are here and won't find out. I wouldn't want a past me to become just as besotted and run away with you!” He waggled his eyebrows at her and they both laughed. “So, let's see... I suppose we could start with one of my first friends at the Academy. His name was Kochei when we were young, although he later called himself the Master. He went a bit mad after he left Gallifrey and I've actually spent most of my lives trying to stop his attempts to take over the universe.” He sent her a few happy memories of his childhood with Kochei. She saw the Doctor as a mischievous, blond youth causing trouble with a dark haired Kochei. They seemed to be very similar in their free spiritedness during those times.

“As I told you before, I left Gallifrey with Susan to start with. The TARDIS was already old enough to be in a museum and was being decommissioned. So, I stole her and ran off to explore the universe.”

“You stole her?! That is so like you,” she laughed.

“Yup! In the beginning, I was mostly just examining things and taking notes on what we found. But, while we were on Earth in the 1960s, Susan caught the attention of two school teachers, Ian and Barbara. They followed her after school one day back to the TARDIS. I was afraid of who they might run off and tell about us, so I kind of locked them in the TARDIS and took off.” He was rubbing the back of his neck now and blushing a bit. She could tell he was embarrassed by the fact that his first human companions had been kidnapped into travelling with him. She shook her head fondly.

“They were the first ones to show me that we could try to help people during our travels. We had always been taught to be observers and let everything happen without our interference. But those two showed me that as a citizen of the universe, I was a part of it and needed to participate in it.” He showed her some memories of travelling with Ian, Barbara and Susan. His sadness at leaving Susan behind, then a few memories of his other companions during his first life.

“Let's jump ahead a bit, eh? I'd love to tell you about one of my best friends! His name was Jamie McCrimmon and I found him in Scotland in 1746.”

“Hang on! That was the name you used when we met Queen Victoria!” She beamed at him.

“Yes it was! Who better to be while in Scotland than one of my dearest friends? We faced Cybermen and Daleks and even Yeti together!” He sent her a few memories of a shorter, dark haired Doctor, wearing a suit that was a little too large. He ran through his adventures with a young man wearing a kilt, named Jamie and a few young ladies named Victoria and later, Zoe. “One day, Jamie, Zoe and I found ourselves in a place where someone was pulling people out of their own times and setting them in war zones fighting against each other. We found a way to put a stop to it all, but the Time Lords were upset with me for interfering. As punishment, they wiped all memories of me from the minds of Jamie and Zoe and sent them home. Then, they forced me to regenerate into my third form.”

“They killed you?! Isn't that a little extreme?”

“Oh, that wasn't even the worst of it. They sent me and the TARDIS to Earth and made sure that I couldn't dematerialize. I was stranded there until they felt I'd learned my lesson. Of course, you know I've never learned to stop interfering, so it was more a matter of doing them enough favours to earn myself a new dematerialization circuit.”

“Was that when you said you were working for UNIT?”

“Yes, my friend Brigadier Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart knew I could help them with figuring out all the alien encounters that were threatening the Earth, so in exchange for a place to stay and well, something to do... I worked as their scientific advisor for a few years. I met Sarah Jane there!” He sent her a few memories of his adventures in his third life with Liz, Jo and Sarah Jane helping out. Some happy thoughts about galavanting around in his yellow car, Bessy as well as a hovercraft and a little helicopter.

“Wow... ruffled shirts and capes, huh?” She snickered a bit at the idea of this version of the Doctor wearing something like that. 

“Yes, well... it was very fashionable for the time.” He was blushing again and wouldn't quite meet her gaze as he tugged on his ear.

“I suppose it isn't as bad as those outfits they wore on Gallifrey, yeah?” Some of the images he had shown her of the long robes and high collars were quite interesting. She wondered if she could have worn something like that and looked all posh and regal. 

“Oh definitely an improvement over that! I could never stand wearing those silly collars and such that they insisted on. Practically impossible to run for your life in something like that. Although, we could probably manage it.” He winked at her and put his arm around her shoulders. “Let's see now... ah yes, Sarah Jane was still adventuring with me when I was finally able to travel in the TARDIS again and even hung around after our encounter with giant spiders and I regenerated into my fourth incarnation. Of course, as Sarah Jane told you, I had to leave her behind when I got called back to Gallifrey. Humans weren't allowed on Gallifrey at that time. The Time Lords were a terribly xenophobic lot. Of course, things had to change a bit after my friend Leela fell in love with a Gallifreyan named Andred and decided to stay there with him.” Through all of his descriptions, he was sending her a few images from his time with each of these friends to give her some context. She thought this fourth Doctor looked like a lot of fun and envied Sarah Jane for her time spent with that version of her husband. Hmmm... what could they have gotten up to with that scarf? She teased him a bit by sending an image of the two of them wrapped up together in nothing but the scarf and the tips of his ears turned a lovely shade of pink.

Taking a little break from descriptions of all of his former selves, he decided to send a few ideas back to his wife about possible uses for his old scarf. Their little snog break lasted until their arrival in Barcelona and resumed immediately upon arrival to their hotel room where the Doctor lifted her across the threshold and tossed her onto the bed.

“Hmmmmmm.... wedding night number two,” he whispered as he trailed kisses down her neck. “I wonder if we should get married a few more times and see how many wedding nights we can tally up?” The nervousness of their first wedding night was a distant memory now as he confidently removed all of her clothing and rained kisses over her body as he revealed more and more of her skin. His gentle kisses and touches had Rose writhing with need by the time she insisted that he needed to lose some of his clothing as well. This type of dancing was well practised for them now and as they joined together their bodies once again as husband and wife, the Doctor felt their timelines twining together tighter than ever before. He had an odd sense though of those timelines going on quite a bit further than perhaps they should for their human lifespans. Of course, Rose then swivelled her hips in such a way that made his mind go blissfully blank and he forgot all about that.


	8. On the Beaches of Barcelona

Chapter Eight – On the Beaches of Barcelona

The next morning, the Doctor and Rose brought a picnic breakfast with them down to the beach. Curled up on a big blanket on the sand, he continued to tell her about his life before they met.

“So, where did I leave off in our little story? Hmmm, ah yes, Leela had just stayed on Gallifrey with Andred, I believe?”

“Yeah, that was it, and you were wearing a big stripy scarf with lots of curly, brown hair. Who was the next person you travelled with?”

“Well, that was when I met Romanadvoratrelundar,” he said with a smile.

“That's a mouthful and a half!” Rose laughed. That couldn't possibly be the name of a human companion.

“I shortened it to Romana, though she didn't like it very much at first. I told her it was that or Fred, so she went with it. She was a Time Lady; The first I'd travelled with since Susan. We had a lot of great adventures together. She became the President on Gallifrey later on.” The memories he shared about Romana showed that she was with him during two of her incarnations. First she was a rather tall, regal looking, dark haired woman and later a petite blonde who seemed to take on his fascination with long coats (maybe it had something to do with those robes they were used to on Gallifrey). Rose smiled at the happy memories that he had with this friend. He seemed almost as fond of Romana as he had been of Jamie and Sarah Jane. Then she thought for a minute about how few of these “best friends” he seemed to have over those centuries of life. It reminded her of how afraid he was to get too close to her after the war. The pain of continuously losing every close friend you've ever had as well as all of the losses from the Time War. She felt a bit of a shift in his emotions as well. Hmm... these next memories might not be quite as happy as the ones with Romana.

“Romana seemed really great, love. You must miss her a lot.” Rose entwined their fingers together and curled up against his side on the blanket. They were both munching on some fresh fruit and listening to the waves. The beach was fairly empty so far, but it was quite early in the day yet.

“She was great, you would have really liked her, Rose. Oh, but my next self might have made it onto your list of pretty boys!” He winked at her and sent her a memory of a sweet looking blonde man, wearing cream and beige with accents of red stripes. He seemed softer than the other Doctors she had seen. “I had several travelling companions during that life Tegan, Nyssa,... Adric...” The last name sounded a bit choked and Rose felt a pang of guilt and pain at the thoughts of Adric.

“What happened?” She squeezed his hand and sent him feelings of love and support. In return, he showed her a very painful memory involving Cybermen and Adric crashing a spaceship into prehistoric Earth. Rose took him into her arms and together, they mourned his lost friend.

“One of the reasons that I never went back after parting with my friends was that as long as they were alive and happy when I left, they could always be that in my mind. No matter how long it had been for me, there was always the idea that they were alive and happy where I had last seen them. Adric was so young and it was my fault that he was there.”

“Doctor, we all know that it's dangerous when we decide to travel with you. That decision is on us, not your shoulders.” She knew why he kept trying to send her away to safety, but she didn't want to live a safe life if it meant she wouldn't be with him.

“Oh, Rose. I know what you are trying to say, but not everyone that comes with me realizes the dangers. Some didn't even really choose to come along. Tegan just wanted to get back home most of the time she spent with me. I just couldn't seem to get the TARDIS to land back at Heathrow.” He showed her a few fond memories of their bantering about his driving skills. “The year that I missed in taking you home was actually quite a bit better than some of the landings I had trying to get her home.”

Suddenly, the Doctor got up from the blanket and pulled her up along with him. He held her close and gave her a soft, sweet kiss. He tasted like strawberries and tea as his tongue explored her mouth. Just as her knees started to feel a bit weak, Rose found herself tossed over his shoulder and he was running towards the waves. They tumbled into the water together laughing and splashing like children. She sensed that he needed this break after thinking about Adric. He needed to clear the melancholy in his mind before moving on to tell her about the rest of his time before her. While they were winding down their playtime in the water, he showed her a few light memories about the rest of his fifth life. Time with Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough and meeting Peri. They were walking back towards their blanket and towels when he decided to start talking about it all again.

“Peri was a sweet girl. It was hard for her in the beginning. We had really only just met before I regenerated and that transformation was, well.... difficult.... actually, can we skip me showing you that particular life, Rose? My wardrobe choices were rather... umm... unfortunate?” He was rubbing the back of his neck again and she giggled at him.

“Worse than capes and ruffled shirts? And was that celery I saw on your lapel in the last one?”

“Yes, well... I may have been a bit colour blind during my sixth life, I think.” Reluctantly, he showed her an image of a proud looking man with blonde, curly hair wearing a very brightly coloured, reddish coat with yellow trousers and a loopy, turquoise tie. She couldn't help giggling a bit and understood why he hadn't wanted to share it with her. 

“We all went through a few phases in our lives that we are a bit embarrassed about, Doctor. When I think about some of the things I wore in my youth...” She sent him a few embarrassing images of things that were rather silly or overly revealing that she wore in high school. “I made some rather poor decisions in my past too. I mean, quitting school to live with my loser boyfriend is certainly worse than wearing plaid with stripes.” He hugged her around the shoulders and kissed the top of her head.

As they packed up their picnic, towels and blanket, he shared with her a few memories about his adventures with Peri and Mel in his sixth life. On their way back to the hotel to get changed into regular clothing, they chatted a bit about his seventh incarnation and Ace. He told her how they hadn't really parted on the best of terms and he had spent some time by himself after that. She felt a bit of reticence about moving on at this point and she got the sense that they might be approaching the war soon. He had already told her about seven lifetimes worth of adventures through the universe and all of those experiences made him the man he was today. The man she loved with her entire being and would be with forever.

They decided to have lunch on the outdoor patio of a little café, where he started to tell her about his eighth life. He told her about his adventure with Grace and how it was actually her fault that he regenerated that time. Showing her some memories of that exciting New Year's Eve, she smiled at him fondly.

“Now THAT face would definitely make it onto my list of pretty boys! My goodness, I thought I liked your hair now... do you think you would have curls like that if you grew your hair now?” She was teasing him, he knew, but he couldn't help playing along.

“Why, Rose Tyler! Are you saying that you would rather run your fingers through the hair of my eighth body than this one?!” He purposefully sent her a few thoughts about that version of himself snogging her silly and she blushed deeply.

“Certainly not, husband, although I wouldn't mind a visit!” She winked at him. He told her a few more stories about Charley, C'rizz, Lucie, Tamsin and Molly. Here though he stopped and stared at the table for a while.

“Do you think, Rose, that we could save talking about the Time War for another day? I know you want to learn about my life and I do want to share with you everything you want to know.... I just don't think....” His feelings of anguish and loss were almost more than she could bear. He had already shared more with her than he had ever shared with anyone else and she knew he needed a bit of a rest from this trip down memory lane.

“Of course we can stop for now, Doctor. What would you like to do with the rest of our day? I'm sure we can find ourselves some trouble somewhere.” With a tongue-in-teeth grin at him, she took his hand and they were off to explore more of Barcelona.


	9. It All Falls Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I should probably warn you about character deaths in this chapter. It isn't Rose or the Doctor, but they are important.

Chapter Nine – It All Falls Down 

After spending a few weeks in Barcelona, they travelled through France, Italy, Greece and after a call from Torchwood to help out with a situation in Egypt, they decided to make their way around Africa for a while. As usual, they always managed to find some trouble to solve (or cause) along the way. Being tied to Earth, it was more often local trouble than extraterrestrial in nature, but it kept them busy which was the way they liked it.

About three months worth of blissfully galavanting around the Earth was brought to a standstill by a single phone call. The Tyler mansion was in ruins. A bomb had been planted inside the house and everyone in the house was killed instantly. Torchwood was investigating but they needed to call Rose, both because it was her family that had died and because she and the Doctor were the best agents to figure out this mess. They were instantly on their way back to London.

Her heart was thundering in her chest as she felt her lungs constrict. The panic attack was coming and there was nothing she could do. Through their link, she felt her husband surround her with his strength. He grabbed her upper arms and looked straight into her eyes.

“Breathe with me, love. It will be alright. I've got you.” They breathed together deeply and slowly until Rose didn't feel like she might suffocate from the pain. The pain wasn't gone, it might never go away, but panicking wouldn't help.

The entire zeppelin ride back had Rose sobbing into the Doctor's lapels as he held her tightly and rubbed her back. His sorrow was mixed with fury towards whomever would dare to do this. They were met at the airport by Jake who was ready with an SUV to take them straight to the scene.

“Alright, Jake, tell us everything you know.” Rose was pulling herself together now. She'd had her cry during the flight and now it was time to act. She could feel the Doctor sending her waves of support and pride at her strength.

“Yes ma'am! We know that the bomb was placed somewhere inside the house and all of the materials were of Earth origin. We suspect that it may have been placed by one of the staff or possibly a contractor that came into the house to check a water or gas line or something at some point. We are having trouble finding out if any such visits happened because most of the regular staff were inside the house when it happened, so there's no one to ask.” Jake was checking his notes with the analyses of chemicals and blast patterns. The Doctor studied them over his shoulder with his hands tensely clasped behind his back.

“Was there any warning of any kind? Threats? Letters? Suspicious characters lurking about?” The Doctor was pacing now as he tried to find out all the information available about what happened to Rose's family. Could they have prevented it if they had been here or would they have just perished with them?

“We are going through all of Pete's emails and correspondence now, but we don't have anything yet. I'll take you to the mansion now so that you can see it for yourself, then we can go back to Torchwood to work on the problem.” They both agreed that would be best and they all climbed into the large SUV.

When they arrived at the property, tears threatened to fall from Rose's eyes again. The upper floors had completely collapsed into the lower and only parts of the outer walls and garage were still standing. The entire contents of the once lively home were strewn in a big pile of debris. The bodies had all been removed of course, but bright flags marked where they had been found. As they walked through the site, the Doctor found one of Tony's favourite toy dinosaurs and he and Rose took a moment to hold each other tightly to bring their feelings under control. They were both on the verge of falling apart, but their determination to find out who was responsible forced them to hold on to each other and keep going. Approaching the point that was identified as the centre of the explosion, the Doctor scanned the area with his sonic.

“I have to agree with the initial analysis. I'm not finding anything extraterrestrial here. The explosives and detonating equipment are all current, standard human technology. So, whomever is responsible, either didn't have access to anything else or chose to make it look as mundane a crime as possible. Maybe lead us to look for some regular criminal off the street instead of something more complex? I can't imagine anyone targeting the director of Torchwood would just be a plain old nutter.” Looking to the area surrounding the bomb, there didn't seem to be any of the body marking flags. “Were you able to identify all of the bodies that were found? Were they all family and staff?”

“Yes, all of the bodies found were positively identified as one of the family or their regular staff. We believe that whoever placed the bomb was not in the house at the time that it went off. It's easy enough to set a timer or a remote, no sense in committing suicide while you're at it.” Jake showed Rose the list of casualties and she nodded as she checked each of the names against her memory of her parents' household staff. Her mother hadn't really wanted to be waited on like that, but the house was too big to take care of by herself, so they had a few people who worked there most days. Seven people dead. Three of those were the only family she had in this world other than her husband. It felt like the rug was being pulled out from under her feet and she wasn't sure where or when she would fall.

They made their way back to Torchwood and called the best and most trustworthy agents they had into an emergency meeting. Rose also asked for Ianto, Pete's personal assistant to attend and provide any insight on correspondence or visitors that might shed some light on the case. An interactive, electronic bulletin board was set up to cover one wall of the conference room and they began filling it with all the facts at hand.

Jake took charge in getting down to business, “Ok people, what news do you have for me?”

“We haven't found anything in his email or computer files yet,” Ianto began. “But, we were checking the Torchwood security cameras in Pete's office and it seems that there was an unexpected visitor in there after hours last Thursday.”

“If they were inside here, then they had to have an ID tag. Who the hell was it?” Jake was close to the family. He had become Pete's second in command after fighting the Cybermen and Rose and the Doctor considered him a good friend. They weren't surprised at his determined attitude at getting the team mobilized quickly.

The Doctor sat at a computer terminal and pulled up the camera footage. It was dark and difficult to see, but some enhancements might be able to get them a clear shot of the person's face. First though, he checked the ID card scan logs.

“Whoever it is, they were good enough to hack into the logs and delete their card scan. Look on the video though, they are checking Pete's filing cabinet, get someone in there to check for finger prints. I'm going to see if I can enhance these images at all to see their face.” His glasses were on and he was typing furiously while Rose watched over his shoulder. It was odd because, she wasn't all that good with computers before, but she understood a lot of the things the Doctor was doing. That was happening a lot lately and she couldn't help but wonder if she was just getting better at this kind of thing or if something more was going on. It seemed strange for her to suddenly understand all the science behind the Dimension Cannon, computer programming and she had been picking up on several of the foreign languages that the Doctor had used in their travels recently. She didn't want to worry her husband with all that right now though, they had work to do. She packed up all her feelings of worry over her own dilemma and hid them for now.

“Ok everyone, I've got a pretty clear image of this person's face now. Gather around and someone tell me who this is.” The Doctor sat back now with his arms crossed and his brow furrowed as all the agents crowded around him to see the computer screen. One of the agents at the back pointed excitedly.

“That's Suzie! Suzie Costello from R&D!”

Jake clapped his hands and started barking orders as they tried to solve this as quickly as possible. Without a doubt she would be running or hiding if she had anything to do with this. They needed to find her fast. “Sanders, see if you can find her. I doubt it, but it's worth a look. Ianto, you're fantastic at finding information, see if you can figure out if she's been associating with anyone suspicious outside of Torchwood. Another organization, groups, cults, crime rings, anything. You have clearance to check her work emails and we'll get a warrant to search her home if we can't find her right away.” Jake was dismissing everyone to get on the tasks he had assigned and Rose suggested that they head up to Pete's office.

Once there, they found one of the agents checking for fingerprints on the file cabinet as requested. It was difficult and while they could establish that she had touched it (they already knew that from the video), they couldn't figure out which files she had been looking at.

“What type of files are in this drawer?” Rose asked, trying to narrow down what kind of information she may have been searching for.

“Looks like employee information for the most part. There wouldn't be anything about Pete or his family in here. What could she have been after?” Jake asked.

Quickly, the Doctor started flipping through the files and pulled out Rose's file as well as his own. His was pretty dry, mostly containing the back story that they had come up with when he first arrived. But Rose's file had several medical reports from her time jumping with the Cannon. It also had grade results from the courses she studied as proof of her qualifications. Were they after information about Rose? If they were after her, hurting her family was certainly the quickest way to get her to come running and they had done just that. He felt a hand on his shoulder and started as he looked over into the worried eyes of his wife.

“Doctor? What is it?” Rose could feel a wave of fear go through her husband's mind and she knew he was working something out. Something definitely not good. Not knowing if Jake or the other agent knew anything about Rose's unusual ability to use the Dimension Cannon without side effects, he decided to keep this conversation private.

~'I have a feeling that she may have been looking at your medical files, love. There were a lot of tests done on you over the last year or so. What if they found something? What if they figured out something that I missed? Or what if they just want to take you into custody to do more invasive testing of their own? I'm scared, Rose. Hurting your family was a sure fire way to get us back here, what if they weren't the primary targets at all?'~

The fear in Rose's eyes began to match that of her husband's. Hadn't she just been thinking about some of the odd changes to herself a little while ago? He was right, she was sure of it. ~'Ok, we need to find out who in the medical department would have had access to all of that information and might be working with Suzie Costello. She won't be on her own and it wouldn't have come to her attention directly. My best guess would be someone on the medical team that worked with us on the Dimension Cannon project or someone that may have come across their work in passing.'~ They hugged each other tightly and Jake looked over a little confused by their slightly odd behaviour.

“Did I miss something?” Jake scratched his head as he looked back and forth between them.

“Jake, I need a list of everyone in medical that was involved with or had access to information about the Dimension Cannon project. And I want this kept between us right now, Jake. I don't know who or how many people might be involved in this, but I don't think that Pete and Jackie were the real targets. I think they wanted us back here.” The Doctor had one arm over Rose's shoulders, holding her tightly as if he was worried that they might sneak in the room and snatch her from under his nose. For all he knew, half of Torchwood could be involved and they just might do exactly that.

“What?! Why would they be after you two? There's nothing in your file that says anything about where you really came from Doctor. And what could this have to do with the Dimension Cannon?” Jake's voice was getting louder and the Doctor was worried that someone might overhear them. He closed the door to the office and sonicked the lock so that no one else could get in. He then deactivated the cameras in the room, just in case.

“During the dimension jumps, it was discovered that everyone who used it, was getting extremely ill when they jumped. Rose was the only person who was immune to this. Not only that, but the sheer volume of jumps that she did should have had some kind of effect on her, but every single medical scan came back absolutely perfect. So, Rose was the only one allowed to go on the jumps. Once the right place was found, Mickey and Jackie came over using those old button things you had before. The science behind the Cannon is completely brilliant and as amazing as my wife has always been, she shouldn't have been able to come up with it all on her own in just a couple of years time.” He kissed her on the temple and sent her feelings of love and pride. “As much as I am terrified of what this all means for her health, I believe that someone else might be more interested in what it might show on a dissection table.”

“Ok, Doctor. I see what you mean and considering she was looking in personnel files, it's probably the best working theory we have right now as to what they might be after. Rose, you stick with him every second right now, yeah? We will figure this out. I'm going to give you full clearance in the computer system, Doctor. You find whatever you need and we don't have to involve anyone else checking on this. I'm going to go check on progress with finding Suzie.” At that, the Doctor let Jake out of the office and secured the door again.

“What can I do, Doctor?” Rose was scared, but she didn't want to just sit around being guarded like some damsel in distress.

“I've got a very important job for you, love. It isn't the most exciting, but it IS the most likely thing to give us any results. I'm going to set you up with the security camera files for the medical department starting with when they got involved with the Dimension Cannon. There is a lot to go through and most of it will likely be nothing, but you can adjust the speed to race through what looks useless. You have always been able to see the things that I miss when we're investigating, so you are the best for this job. I'm going to check and see who may have been accessing your medical files after the project was completed. That might help us find out who else could be involved.” With a huge hug and kiss, he set her up on the computer next to his and they both got to work.


	10. Searching for Answers

Chapter Ten – Searching for Answers

As Rose was scanning through months worth of videos for anything that looked suspicious, the Doctor's mind was working overtime. He was methodically searching who had accessed each and every medical file in the system that had to do with Rose and the Dimension Cannon. Then he was going to go through all the files and logs for every single employee in the medical department, starting with those involved in the project. While he was doing all of that though, he was also considering all of the possibilities of what could be going on with Rose's transformation. What started it? How far had it gone? How far was it going and what was it even doing? He knew that she was either healing very quickly or not taking damage at all. He knew that her mental capabilities were increased exponentially. He knew that all of this was happening before the Dimension Cannon project began. Could it have started before she was lost to him? What could have caused something like this?

The answer hit him like a ton of bricks. Bad Wolf. She had destroyed a whole fleet of Daleks, brought Jack back from the dead to the point of immortality, and somehow changed herself. In what way though had she changed herself? Thinking about how healthy she was despite everything that had happened to her made a sudden wave of fear race through him. They had linked their lifespans together because they should have been fairly matched, what if she had changed herself enough to live for centuries and now he only had another fifty or sixty years? She would die with him when she could keep going. He tried to keep a handle on his emotions knowing that Rose would feel every bit of it. They could worry about that part later. For today, they needed to survive possible attacks from whoever was behind all this. Could they just run? Where would they go?

“Doctor! Come and look at this!” Rose could feel how terrified he was. She had called his name three times before his attention finally returned to the room. “This video is from the medical lab right after they had checked me out and we decided that I was the only one that would be going on the jumps. Those two right there, watch... They have a whispered conversation, then one of them pockets one of the vials from my blood tests!”

“I was just looking at the technicians involved. That's Dr. Harper. I knew you would find it, love! You are so brilliant, you see everything! Ok, we need to talk to Jake. Then, we need to make a trip down to the archives.... We catalogued all of that equipment and there is something in there that I want us to have on hand just in case.” Plans and back up plans were all racing though his head on how to get them out of here and to safety.

“What is it that you want to get? Some kind of force field or something?”

“A vortex manipulator.”

“Run? You think we should run from this?” It was what they did best and what did they have left to tie them here? Her family were all dead and some group of nutters from their own workplace wanted to dissect her. They didn't usually back down from a fight, but then again, they were usually helping other people fight against cruelty, danger or injustice. This was someone who wanted her, just her. If she left, there would be nothing they could do. “But where will we go? Would they just keep chasing us around the world? We won't have proper coordinates to know where to go off world. This is a different universe, Doctor. What if the planets here aren't where you would expect them to be in the other universe?”

“I think, Rose.... I think, we need to consider trying to get back to our original universe.” The silence hung in the air between them for a few moments before Rose could get her mouth to function again.

“How?” She almost choked the word out. It felt like all the air had been sucked out of her lungs. As easy as that? Oh, we'll just hop back over there. The only times there was a way through were during the biggest universal catastrophes in existence!

“Let's think this through. The first time we came here, during the mess with Lumic, the TARDIS fell through accidentally. I don't think that opening would be enough for the Dimension Hoppers to make it through, so if we went to that point, we would have to get into the TARDIS while the younger versions of ourselves were away and hide in the TARDIS somewhere. The problem with that is that he might sense my link with you. I don't know if the TARDIS would be able to hide it from him. Option number two... During the events at Canary Wharf. We could sneak into Torchwood here and use the hoppers to get back over just like Mickey and your dad did. The problem there is that we would have to get away from that time immediately because as soon as the Daleks and Cybermen start getting pulled into the void, we would get pulled in too without any magnaclamps to hold onto. We would also have to make sure that we hopped into an area where we wouldn't meet ourselves or a group of Cybermen looking to upgrade us. Option three is probably the most dangerous. We could go to the time when the stars were going out and use the Dimension Cannon then. I can aim it properly to get us there. BUT... the people we are currently running from were already making plans for you then AND we would be transporting ourselves into a world full of Daleks.” None of these were a good idea, they all involved crossing into established events and dealing with Cybermen or Daleks or both.

“Ok, why wasn't crossing during one of those times an option to come and get me before? You said it was impossible, now it sounds like.... like....” Like he didn't really want her back? She couldn't believe that. They were happy together now.

“Oh, Rose!” He hugged her tightly and ran his fingers through her hair. “Of course I wanted to get you back! This is all extremely dangerous and normally, I would never cross into our own past like this. But also, it doesn't really matter when we land on the other side, just when we leave from here AND it's much easier to aim for our home universe by analyzing our cellular structure than when I was blindly aiming for this universe without any real point of reference to find it.” She relaxed a bit in his embrace and wrapped her arms tighter around his waist.

“So, let me get these risks straight.... The least risk of enemies is when we first came across, but since we'd have to hide in the TARDIS, it has the highest risk of bumping into ourselves?” He nodded at her, glad that she was understanding all the timey wimey-ness of it all. “The other two have us less likely to bump into ourselves, but far more likely to have to deal with Daleks and Cybermen, yeah? Given the risk of getting pulled into the void, I think I'd rather cross Canary Wharf off the list.”

“I agree with you there. I think our safest bet would be trying to hitch a ride on the TARDIS. Maybe if we get into the zero room, she can hide our telepathic signatures from past me.”

“Ok... ok.... Let's get those escape plans ready just in case, but maybe we can find a way to stop them, yeah? I mean, we know about Suzie and Dr. Harper and whoever that was he was whispering to in the lab. If we stop them all, then we'll be safe here.” She was pacing now and the Doctor could feel her starting to panic. He knew she had started having panic attacks when they were separated and he needed to slow her down before it got too far. He stopped her pacing with a tight hug and firmly started rubbing her back.

“Breathe with me, love. It'll be alright. I'll find a way to get us out of this. But you need to realize, that it isn't safe for us here. What if we miss finding one of them? What if someone else down the road starts snooping into your medical history and this all starts over again? Our safest bet is to get away from here.” He could feel her pulse slow as she got her emotions back under control. She took a few deep breaths and hugged him back tightly.

“Alright... I trust you, my love. What's the plan?”

“First question, do we need to go home for anything? My TARDIS key is in the pocket of my blue suit, where is yours? We might need it.”

“It's locked in the safe in my office. We had tried to use it to aim the Cannon for a while.”

“Well, let's get that first. Then we need to get down to the archives and find that vortex manipulator that I saw a few months ago. Then, if we're planning on going back to when we first came here, the TARDIS was powered down and we're going to need torches to find our way to the zero room. Can you think of anything else that we might need or can't leave behind?” This was definitely dangerous. They were planning to cross their own timelines and purposefully put themselves into the same TARDIS where their past selves would be. He thought back to that trip carefully. Did he remember sensing anything odd when they got back from fighting the cybermen? He didn't think so and he couldn't find any fuzzy spots that might indicate having suppressed any memories of future knowledge. The TARDIS wouldn't be able to shield them much while she was powered down, but once the recharged power cell was replaced, the zero room would be fully operational again and they should be safe there until they could sneak out again.

“I can't think of anything I couldn't live without. Except you of course.” She gave him a teasing smirk. They needed to lighten the mood a bit. They've faced worse than this before and laughed their way through it. They had a plan now, they just needed to get moving.

“Well, that goes without saying. I am rather marvellous after all.” With a quick kiss on the tip of her nose, he grabbed her hand and started pulling her along to go collect what they needed. “Allons-y, my beautiful wife! We are going home.”

They walked quickly through the hallways, but tried not to look like they knew they were the targets. Someone was likely watching them and they didn't want to accelerate their plans to close the trap. The first stop was Rose's office to pick up her old TARDIS key and she had a spare torch in there as well. Then, they made their way down to where all the found alien technology was stored. They had helped sort and label most of this during their first week together here, so they had a good idea where to find what they were looking for. Their next task was to find Jake to let him know what they had discovered about Dr. Harper and tell him their plan so they wouldn't be looking for them as missing people. They could leave the cleanup of the corruption in Torchwood in his capable hands.

The Doctor found a computer terminal and started looking for the last place that Jake had scanned his ID card. The medical department? Well, he had told Jake about the theory, but he was supposed to leave that investigation to them so they wouldn't arouse suspicion. He had a feeling that things were about to come to a head. Holding tight to his wife's hand, they made their way to the medical department. While they were walking, he strapped the vortex manipulator to his wrist and programmed it with coordinates to their flat. It would at least give them a quick way out and a few minutes to plan their next move if needed. As they approached the lab where he thought Jake would be, they could hear raised voices and slowed their pace. Keeping out of sight of the occupants of the room, they got close enough to listen. Was that Jake's voice?

“I'm telling you, Owen. They know it's Rose we're after!”

“Alright, calm down. Where are they now? We'll get a team together and contain them.”

“I left them both in Pete's office. They were searching computer files for information on medical staff that might be involved.”

“Right, well, as long as we capture them now, it won't matter what they found out.”

Rose and the Doctor looked each other in the eye and without a word (even mentally) the decision was made. This was deeper and bigger than they could handle. It was time to leave. Just as they turned to head back down the hallway and out of the building, they ran straight into Suzie Costello.

“Well, look what I've found. Fancy meeting you here, freak.” She had a pistol in her hand and was aiming it straight at Rose.

“Why are you doing this? What do you want with me?” Rose could feel the Doctor's mood shift. The Oncoming Storm was building beside her. Could they get out of here before the storm broke?

“Oh, I'm sure that's fairly obvious, Rose. There's something special about you. Your father may have tried to change things around here, but we're only human. And it's plainly obvious that YOU are NOT. If it's alien, it's ours.” The evil smirk on her face told them that Jake and Owen had come out of the room behind them and their escape routes on foot had been cut off. “The first step, of course, is to get your protector out of the way.” The gun moved towards the Doctor, but before she could pull the trigger, Rose threw herself in front of him and the bullet hit her square in the chest.

“NO!!!” The Doctor wrapped his arm tightly around Rose's waist and smashed the button on the vortex manipulator to get them out of there immediately.


	11. WHAT?!?

Chapter Eleven – WHAT?!?

As soon as they landed back in their flat, the Doctor laid his wife down on the floor and started checking her over. “Rose! Rose, love, look at me.”

“Do....Doctor... it hurts.” Her breathing was erratic and he could see that the bullet likely punctured her lung. She was bleeding heavily. There wasn't anything he could do here on the floor. Tears fell heavily from his eyes as he watched the life drain out of his wife. He whispered assurances of his love in Gallifreyan as he stroked her hair and held her gaze. She whispered something back to him and as he strained to listen, his heart skipped a beat. She spoke the phrase of devotion in Gallifreyan that he had said to her their first night in this universe. Just as her eyes closed, a shimmer of golden light started to gather over her skin. His eyes went wide and he carefully backed away from his wife's body.

“It can't be!” She was regenerating! How? Relief that she would live swirled with fear of what this could all mean for their future as he tried to focus on the here and now. They wouldn't be safe here for long with Torchwood after them and if she was regenerating, then the safest place for her to recover would be the TARDIS. In a flash of golden light, Rose's features changed before his eyes. She was taller now and looked a little bit older with darker hair as well. Her new face seemed slightly familiar to him, but he couldn't place it and really, now was not the time for that.

Rose gasped and started looking around frantically trying to figure out what had happened. She wasn't in pain anymore and she could breathe clearly. She felt a thundering rhythm in her chest and her head felt like it was on fire. Shutting her eyes tightly, she grasped her head. “Oh god... what happened? ...Doctor? Doctor, what's the matter with my voice?”

Grasping her shoulders, the Doctor looked her in the eyes. They were still brown, but seemed darker and in more contrast to her pale skin than they used to be. “Rose, love, you've regenerated.”

“What?! How could I have regenerated? I'm not a Time Lord! ... Am I?” She pressed both hands up against her chest and felt two hearts beating. “My head is killing me, Doctor.” She leaned into his arms and he held her against him on the floor.

“And that settles it. I need to get you to the TARDIS and into the zero room. Hang on, my love, everything will be fine.” He made some mental calculations about the timing and where best to land so that they wouldn't be seen by their past selves. He typed furiously into the vortex manipulator, then held her tight against his chest as he pushed the button. Travelling through the vortex without a capsule fresh from regenerating was not a good idea, but if they stayed there, they would be sure to have the mutinous Torchwood employees breaking down the door looking for them.

In a flash of white light and a small thunderclap, they found themselves on the grass in a park near where the TARDIS had landed them during their first trip here. He couldn't hear the TARDIS in his mind, but remembered that he had thought she was dead when her power drained. Watching carefully from the bushes near them, he could see himself and Rose walking off towards the Tyler mansion for the party where the Cybermen would attempt their takeover. Lifting his now unconscious wife in his arms, he quickly ran towards the powered down TARDIS. Getting the key into the lock without dropping her was difficult, but snapping his fingers certainly wouldn't work when he couldn't even feel the presence of her in his mind. He kicked the doors shut behind them and laid Rose down on the jump seat while he searched his pockets for the torch they had brought with them.

With the dim torch light and the weight of his unconscious wife in his arms, the Doctor stumbled a bit on the grating as he made his way through the powered down ship towards the rarely used zero room. The space was dark and with no power to help shield them from everything, gravity was still holding them to the floor. He laid Rose down on the floor and curled up next to her. She was breathing steadily and both hearts were beating strongly. Her clothes weren't fitting her quite right anymore and he considered sneaking down to the wardrobe to find her something else, but he worried about leaving her alone in the dark while he left with the only torch. Best not. They could play dress up later. For now, he cuddled with his wife on the floor and decided to join her in sleeping off the stress of the day. They were relatively safe and he was confident that the TARDIS would keep them safe.

When the Doctor awoke, he saw the soft, white light that he was accustomed to in the zero room and they were floating above the floor. They had embraced each other during their sleep and he snuggled his wife closer. He could feel the TARDIS in his mind for the first time since they had been left on the beach four months ago and basked in the connection that he had missed. His connection to Rose felt stronger now. Of course, as a Time Lady, she was telepathic now too. Her mind felt content being near him and the TARDIS, but he could tell that it would be a while before her new biology would have her waking again. With the limited way that the TARDIS could communicate with him, he felt her reassure him that they were safe from their previous selves' discovery and that she would let him know when it was safe to leave.

Hours had passed and the Doctor was starting to get hungry. They couldn't leave the zero room however, or they would be discovered. The TARDIS produced another door in the room that didn't lead out into hallway. Checking it carefully, he found a small kitchen area and loo that were shielded in the same way as the zero room (except that there was gravity in there). He made some tea and sandwiches while he waited for Rose to wake up. He would have liked to also have access to the medbay to check what had happened to his wife, but they certainly couldn't risk venturing out there. He thought about the timing of their trips around this time. They had spent a few days visiting Jackie after their trip to the parallel universe while he repaired some of her systems, then they went to the coronation when he was trying to get them to see Elvis. He certainly didn't want to exit the TARDIS while they were in the fifties and be stranded there. But then, where did they want to be? He couldn't talk to Jack or UNIT or even his other self until after the mess with the Daleks and the stars going out. He still had the vortex manipulator, but the TARDIS couldn't switch from the vortex in this universe to the one in the other, so this manipulator probably wouldn't even work here. He didn't really want to stay hiding in here until they visited the Olympics in 2012 because he knew there was a rather nasty fall into the centre of a planet orbiting a black hole coming up and he'd rather not be in here during that. 

As he was contemplating where and when he would like them to go, Rose began to stir. He rushed to her side and took her hand.

“Doctor? Where am I?” Rose was looking around the white room and he was taking in all the differences in her new regeneration. Her accent would take some getting used to.

“I'm right here, my love. Tell me what you remember and I'll fill in the blanks from there, alright?” He stroked her dark hair off of her face and looked into her frightened new eyes with all the love he felt for her. He sent her feelings of reassurance and calm to let her know that she was safe now.

“I remember that Suzie was going to shoot you and I couldn't let that happen, so I blocked it. It hurt so much. Then, I remember being in our flat and you said that I regenerated... and then waking up here?” She was stroking the back of his hand with her thumb nervously and looking to his face for reassurance that she hadn't lost her mind completely.

“You did regenerate, Rose. That did happen. It seems that you were very busy when you were the Bad Wolf. Along with destroying all the Daleks and making Jack immortal, you also made yourself into a Time Lady. How do you feel, love?” The Doctor wrapped her in his arms as they kept floating around in the soft white light of the zero room.

“Nothing hurts anymore, but everything feels very... intense? Like it's all louder and brighter? And ... wow, she was right! I do feel like I'm beating out a samba! Two hearts will take some getting used to.” Rose pulled back from his hug and pressed her hands against her chest over each heart.

“Yeah, like me getting used to only having one. It does make sense that things would feel intense for now. Your senses are definitely heightened from what you are used to and you also have several more senses than you did before. I'll help you figure it all out and you'll get used to it. Our link feels fine to me, stronger in fact now that you're telepathic. Your head doesn't hurt at all?” He rubbed the back of his neck and tried to hide the slight stab of jealousy over her gaining all the things that he had so recently lost. He could tell that she felt it though when she sent him the feeling that she was sorry.

“My head feels fine. It feels really strange to have a different body though... am I taller?” She was grabbing at her hair and looking at the dark brown with a disapproving gaze. “I'll need to buy some hair colour.”

“Why don't we go through here, love. The TARDIS gave us a little kitchen and a bathroom where you can take a look at the whole package. Your clothes aren't fitting quite right, but I don't think it would be safe for us to go to the wardrobe room here.” The Doctor helped her get back on her feet as they entered the gravity of the kitchen area. She took a few wobbly steps to get used to her new frame, but seemed to get the hang of it fairly quickly.

In the bathroom, there was a full length mirror (it seemed the TARDIS anticipated this need as well). She was taller, less curvy and her hair was definitely darker than even her natural colour used to be. She also appeared to look a bit older than she had before. She frowned into the mirror and her fingers smushed her cheeks as she felt her new face. Her skin looked more pale and her eyes, while still brown were darker than before. ~'Not so pink and yellow anymore.'~

~'You are beautiful, Rose. And you always will be.'~ Her husband hugged her from behind and she took in how different even that felt. Being taller, he didn't have to lean down to put his chin on her shoulder now. She looked a little closer to the age that he looked now, maybe mid-thirties?

“Oh my god! Doctor! I'm going to outlive you... but I can't outlive you because we're bonded... but what are we going to do?” This was certainly better than dying on the floor of their flat from a gunshot wound, but they were supposed to have a real forever! They were supposed to live the same length of time now, this was so unfair!

“I'll think of something, darling. You know I will. I won't let you die early because of our bond. There has to be a way to make my lifespan match yours again and we WILL find it. I promise, love.” He turned her in his arms to face him and hugged her tightly. “Are you hungry? Do you want some tea?”

“Yes, tea sounds wonderful. The solution to everything, right? Ooh, this new accent is very strange. I sound so posh! What do you think, Doctor?” He smiled at her and kissed her thoroughly.

“I think, my love, that you would get on even better with my eighth self now. But now that we are in the same universe, I'm going to do my very best to keep you away from him.” He winked at her and sat her down at the little table in the kitchen area. Bringing the tea and sandwiches that he had made earlier over to the table, he warned her that she might not like her tea the same way she did before.

“Don't you worry one bit, Doctor. You wouldn't get rid of me that easily.” Rose smirked at him, “Stuck with me, you are.”

He smiled back at her, “But stuck with you isn't so bad.”


	12. Tea and Time Agents

Chapter Twelve - Tea and Time Agents

After four attempts at figuring out how she now liked her tea, spitting out what used to be her favourite kind of sandwich and eventually settling on eating peanut butter with a spoon, Rose was feeling much more settled.

“Do you have a plan, Doctor?” She took another sip of tea to help wash the rest of the peanut butter out of her mouth. “Where should we go? Is there anyone here that we can talk to for help?”

“I've been thinking about that, but I'm not sure. I don't think the vortex manipulator from the other universe will work in the vortex here and we can't talk to anyone until after the point where we left in their timelines. I'd say Jack would be the most willing to help us, but it would have to be in 2008 and I'm not sure how to get us there without hijacking the TARDIS.” The Doctor always had the TARDIS to get him through time and space. Finding another way to travel now would be difficult for sure. It wasn't like he could just go and steal another TARDIS.

“What if we sent him a letter now, with a note that told him not to open it until after the day we left? Asking him to come pick us up with his vortex manipulator?” Rose figured that as an ex Time Agent, he could be trusted to understand that kind of time sensitive information.

The Doctor's face was priceless. His eyebrows rose almost to his hairline as his mouth dropped open in shock. “That's.... that's brilliant! Rose, you're a genius! Ok, wait though; I'm sure the other me deactivated it again before Jack left.” He scratched his head thoughtfully.

“Well, do you know how to fix what he would have done to it? Could you describe in the letter how to fix it or could we send him a package with your sonic in it on the right setting? He'd be bringing it right back from our perspective.”

“Rose, seriously, you are absolutely brilliant and that's not just the increase in your capabilities as a Time Lady. You have always been able to figure out these things that I miss completely.” He stood up and pulled her into his arms, swinging her around happily. They stayed standing together that way for a while, just enjoying being together.

“Ok, Rose, as soon as the TARDIS lets us know that it's safe to sneak out, we need to write a letter to Jack so he can bring us back to 2008 right after the other me dropped him off with Mickey and Martha. If there's time, maybe we can swing down to the wardrobe and get you something that fits better. Otherwise, we'll have to go shopping later.... maybe I could swipe one of my brown suits while we're at it.” The Doctor looked off into the distance, contemplating how many useful things he might be able to grab before leaving.

“Let's be careful, Doctor. We can't risk the past you noticing that things are missing all of a sudden. I can manage with my clothes feeling a little awkward until we get to a time that is safer.” Rose knew that if she let him have his way, he would start shoving several transdimensional bags full of possibly useful stuff and spend long enough that they would surely be found by their past selves.

He rolled his eyes and nodded, “Yes, I suppose you're right. Best not tempt fate by hanging about in here. We spent a couple of days visiting your mum after we came back, so we should be parked on the Estate outside. It would probably be best if we head in the opposite direction from your mum's flat since the past versions of ourselves probably went to see her. No one will recognize you when we're out there, but they could recognize me, so the faster we can get out of the area, the better.”

Rose tilted her head in thought for a moment. Then her face lit up with a bright smile. It was different from the smile he had loved so dearly; Her tongue wasn't peeking out of the corner of her mouth the way it used to in a way that drove him mad. But it was a beautiful smile and he knew that he would grow to cherish it just as much as her old one.

“That explains it!” Rose shouted suddenly and the Doctor looked confused. “I got a phone call from Shireen a few days after we came back from the other universe the first time. She told me that she had seen you walking down the street with another woman. I told her it was impossible, that you had been with me the whole day, but she swore she saw you walking hand in hand with another woman. It was me the whole time!” The Doctor felt her send relief and affection towards him along with the memory of that phone call and the insecurity she had felt over it.

About an hour later, the TARDIS let them know that it was safe to leave and she sent them both a wave of love and encouragement that everything would be alright. They both felt stronger with her confidence in them and carefully made their way out towards the console room and the doors outside. They managed to get out of there without being seen by their past selves, but Rose did wink at Shireen when she noticed her watching them as they left the areas they used to frequent on their trips to visit her mum.

The Doctor used his sonic on a cashpoint to get some money, then bought a small package that would keep his screwdriver safe and wrote the letter to go with it. On the outside he wrote:

To: Captain Jack Harkness  
Do NOT open until after the events of July 5, 2008  
and NOT in front of me  
From: The Doctor

He carefully phrased the inside. While he was sure that Jack could be trusted with time sensitive information, he needed to be careful with what might happen. The letter read:

I sincerely hope that you waited until the date on the outside of this package, but just in case, I'll keep this sort of vague. This is “the other one” and she is with me. I've sent you my sonic so that you can undo what was done to your vortex manipulator and pick us up. We would really appreciate it. It's on the right setting, just point and shoot for three seconds, then set your coordinates for 3749.653  
Thank You,  
The Doctor

No sooner had they dropped the package into the mailbox, when Jack appeared in front of them in a flash of light. He grinned at the Doctor, then gave an odd look at Rose. Suddenly realizing the point of his confusion, the Doctor started and put an arm around her shoulders.

“Jack, I know this is going to be really hard to grasp, but this is Rose.” He squeezed his wife's shoulders, knowing how uncomfortable she felt with Jack not knowing who she was.

Rose nodded and gave Jack a nervous smile, hoping that he would accept the new her and what had happened. “Hello Jack. I .. umm... I regenerated.” There were traces of tears beginning to gather in her eyes as he still looked at her warily.

“Regenerated?! I'm sorry, but how? Rose isn't a Time Lord!” Jack crossed his arms in front of his chest as he looked at this new woman in front of him.

Knowing that Rose's feelings were in turmoil, the Doctor jumped in and hugged her tightly while he explained, “Correction, Jack. Rose WASN'T a Time Lord. At the same time that you were changed (as far as we can tell) so was she. It's been about 4 months since we last saw you, Jack. In that time, we got married and went on a 3 month long honeymoon before we were targeted by a group of renegade agents at the parallel Torchwood. She was shot and regenerated before we managed to stow away on the TARDIS with our past selves, which is why we need a lift out of here... we're already here.”

Jack's face changed from one of suspicion to one of sympathy and he opened his arms towards Rose. “Oh sweetheart! I'm so sorry, it's just a lot to take in. Even more so for you, I'm sure.” She immediately fell into his arms for a hug and tried to get her emotions under control. “Don't you worry, Rosie, I'm sure there are a few people back at the hub here that would love to see you again. Although I'm sure that story was a very simplified summary of events.”

Jack programmed his vortex manipulator to head back to Torchwood 3 and once the Doctor and Rose had placed their hands on it, they all disappeared from that spot in a flash of light.


	13. Who Are You?

Chapter Thirteen – Who Are You?

When they landed in the hub, Rose felt the arms of her husband wrap around her tightly to hold her up. Closing her eyes, she breathed in and out slowly and pressed her forehead against his while waiting for the disorientation from travelling by vortex manipulator to wear off. When she opened her eyes again, she saw a familiar group of people looking at her slightly accusingly. What? Oh, right, they don't recognize the woman in intimate contact with the Doctor.

“Um, hello. We can explain, right Doctor?” Rose took a step back from her husband, but took his hand and squeezed it gently.

“Of course, my love.” The surrounding group, which consisted of Ianto, Mickey and Martha, all looked at each other confusedly when the Doctor used the endearment towards this woman they did not recognize. “Well everyone, this is Rose.”

The entire group simultaneously shouted, “What?!?” It was so loud that it startled the group's pet Pteranodon, Myfanwy, out of her hiding place to flap about the wide open space of the hub.

“But I've met Rose and THAT is definitely not her!” Martha said while angrily crossing her arms over her chest.

“How the hell could that be Rose? Have you lost it, Doctor?” Mickey knew something was definitely wrong with this. Maybe that meta-whatsits thing scrambled his brain. How could he not know that this was NOT Rose?

Rose meanwhile wrapped herself around the side of her husband as the shouting got louder. She was having enough trouble getting used to the idea of changing species, she didn't need all her friends accusing her of brainwashing him. She knew that he could feel her discomfort as she felt a wave of calm reassurance flowing from him.

“Calm down everyone, please! We can explain everything, but it's been a really rough couple of days for us, so maybe we can sit somewhere for this story? It's been about four months since we've seen all of you so this might take a while.” The Doctor kissed Rose's forehead and kept an arm around her as Jack led them all to the conference room where they could all sit together.

Once everyone was settled, the Doctor entwined his fingers with Rose's and began to tell the story. “Each of you will have different levels of knowledge about parts of this story, so I'll try to explain it all as best I can. Right before I regenerated to look like this, Rose, Jack and I were in the year 200100 facing off against a fleet of Daleks and their emperor. I was of course terrified for Rose's safety and tricked her into the TARDIS to remotely send her home. Rose didn't like that idea very much.” Mickey scoffed and rolled his eyes at that understatement. 

The Doctor ignored him and continued his story, “So, with a little help, she opened the TARDIS console and looked into her heart. She had all the power of the time vortex running through her head and flew the TARDIS back to me. Using that power, she spread the message “Bad Wolf” throughout time and space as a message to herself, she destroyed all of the Daleks, brought Jack back to life permanently AND apparently made herself into a Time Lady. We didn't know about that last one until today. When I saw that her mind was burning with the power of the vortex, I took it out of her and that caused me to regenerate.” Jack had his arms crossed over his chest but he was nodding in understanding. Mickey, Martha and Ianto looked at each other incredulously with raised eyebrows.

Rose decided she should be the one to tell her side of the story while she and the Doctor were separated. “After I was trapped in the parallel world, I noticed a few things about me were changing. I could suddenly understand a lot of things that didn't make sense to me before. I studied everything I could get my hands on and designed the Dimension Cannon to make my way back to this universe. Once we finally had it built, we found that I was the only one that wasn't getting really sick from using it. So, I was the only one allowed to use it at all. The medical team kept testing me after every jump and found that I was perfectly fine. We're not quite sure if they found out anything else.” Mickey was nodding his understanding of this part of the story. Rose met his eyes, then she looked to her husband to silently ask him to take up the next part of the story. 

“After all of you were dropped off from the TARDIS, the other me took us all back to the parallel world. But he didn't just drop off Jackie, he left me and Rose there as well. We got married and spent three months travelling before they decided to get our attention.” Rose buried her face into his lapel and he rubbed her back as he continued, “We received word that Pete, Jackie and Tony were all killed when someone planted a bomb in the Tyler mansion.” Everyone gasped at this news and Mickey's face went slack. The Doctor took a deep breath to keep his anger under control. “This of course, had us rushing back to help with the investigation. We discovered that their deaths were only meant to bring us back to Torchwood and ensure the success of their mutiny. A group of agents decided that they wanted to experiment on Rose and I was expendable. When one of them was about to shoot me, however, Rose threw herself in front of me.” The Doctor squeezes Rose's hand as he remembers all the blood.

“I had taken an old vortex manipulator from their archives right before that and got us out of there, but she was already dying. It was a huge shock to both of us when she regenerated. Luckily, we had already discussed our plans to get back here to relative safety. I brought us back to the first time we had visited that universe and hid in the zero room on the TARDIS as the past me brought us back over here. Then, we sent the package to Jack so that we could keep away from bumping into ourselves and causing all kinds of trouble.”

The silence in the room was palpable as everyone seemed to be in shock.

~'Do you think they believe us?'~ Rose thought towards her husband.

~'I think Jack does, your transformation isn't quite as extreme as his was and he's been around plenty of unbelievable things. Mickey and Martha are probably going to be harder to convince. This Ianto doesn't really know us, so he'll probably just go with it. Don't worry, my love, we'll be fine.'~

Several of the people in the room seemed to be staring into space as their brains tried to process what they had just heard. Deciding that it might be best to let them take their time with it, the Doctor asked Jack, “Is there somewhere we could stay for a few days, until we can make a plan? I think my wife and I would like a shower and some rest before we tackle the bigger issues at hand.”

Jack blinked back into awareness of the room and immediately went into motion to help his friends. “Of course, Doctor. We can set you up in a hotel for now and tomorrow, if you like, we can discuss whatever you two need to help you get settled back here.”

“Thank you, Jack,” Rose said as she gave him a hug. 

Once Rose and the Doctor got to their hotel room, he could suddenly feel nervousness coming from her through their link. “What's the matter, love?”

“Nothing!” Rose answered, a little too quickly. “I'm just going to take a shower.” She closed the door behind her and the Doctor's brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what just happened. What was she afraid of? It then occurred to him that she might be worried about being intimate with him in her new body. Well, then, it was time to be reassuring.

He could hear the shower running, so he stripped out of his clothes and quietly entered the bathroom to join her in the shower. She was surprised to see him as he entered the shower stall, but melted into his arms when he started kissing her. He pulled her wet body up against his and ran his hands gently up and down her back. She relaxed more and more as the Doctor took his time discovering all of the new places that made her squeal delightfully. She wasn't ticklish in the same places, but found that her heightened sense of touch meant that just breathing over her bare flesh made her shiver with need. 

They washed each other's bodies slowly and when they got out of the shower, he wrapped her up in a big fluffy towel and carried her out to the bed. He rubbed the towel over her playfully, then pulled it away and began kissing his way up her body from her toes all the way to her mouth. In their minds, he was whispering phrases of love and devotion through all regenerations in Gallifreyan and they were both surprised to find that she understood them. She responded with similar phrases in perfect Gallifreyan as well. They were both too wrapped up in their activities to think about that right now and just enjoyed this new connection and understanding between them.

When the Doctor felt she was ready, he entered her and they both breathed heavily for a few moments as they got used to the new feeling of her changed physiology. She wasn't really a virgin and yet, she sort of was. They found their rhythm quickly and the Doctor whispered in her ear as he nuzzled his nose into her hair. “You will always be my beautiful wife. I will always know you and always love you. The amazing woman that I fell in love with is still here, I promise you. You never need to worry about whether I still love you or find you attractive, darling. I can feel you and you can feel that I mean that with every beat of my single heart, my love.”

“Yes, Doctor,” she replied breathlessly and tugged at his hair to bring his mouth to hers in a scorching kiss. She could definitely feel the sincerity of his words, but she could also feel so much more. She was practically drowning in the sensations of this new level of awareness. She could smell his pheromones, feel his pulse race and every touch was so intense she could hardly make heads or tails of what was happening. She would have thought that her sense of touch becoming so responsive would have made the harder touches hurt, but it didn't. Somehow the increased intensity of the feelings also increased the pleasure that came with them. She groaned and wrapped her legs around his hips to pull him harder against her. It only took a few more strokes before she was coming hard around him and he followed with the wave of bliss flowing from her mind to his.

Curling up in each other's arms, they snuggled under the duvet for the night and basked in the feelings of safety and contentment for the moment. Their worries of the future could wait until tomorrow.


	14. Shop 'Til You Drop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first hints of who Rose regenerated into come in this chapter. Although, if you aren't familiar with Classic Who, you might not catch on.

Chapter Fourteen – Shop 'Til You Drop

It was still quite dark outside when Rose awoke the next morning. She would probably need to get used to that. The Doctor never slept much as a full blooded Time Lord, so she probably wouldn't need to sleep as much either. Still, snuggling in bed with her husband was far too pleasant to want to get up. Instead, she took the time to think about all of the things that had happened over the last couple of days. 

Her parents and little brother were dead; Killed by the very people she thought were their closest friends. The pain of that loss was still so fresh and more tears fell from her eyes. Adding to that was the knowledge that the wonderful life of growing old together with her Doctor had turned into something even worse than the Doctor had faced with her originally. He had been near the end of his regenerations and had still feared going on without her, now she was at the beginning of hers and they had bonded their lives together. It wasn't that she was afraid to die at the end of his life, it was knowing that she had made this change when she had the power of the Bad Wolf so that they could be together and she knew that her husband would never stop trying to find a way to give her the full length of her life as a Time Lady. The Doctor would not accept dying of old age if it meant that Rose would die before her time. She loved him for it and she wanted him to have the long life that he deserved as well. 

The question of course, was how? Could the TARDIS help them change him the way it did for her? She wasn't sure, but she didn't think so. The TARDIS would probably have found a way to make the suggestion before they left if that were the case.

As she pondered this predicament, Rose gently stroked the Doctor's hair. She loved him so deeply. THIS him. Yes, of course, she still loved the other Doctor. But this Doctor was her husband. This was the one who shared the stories and memories of all of his lives with her. This was the Doctor who bonded with her and married her and made the decision to never make decisions for her again. They were a team and they would find a solution that would keep them together for the forevers that they had promised each other. She felt him starting to wake up and kissed his temple. His arm wrapped around her waist tightened its grip slightly and he hummed happily.

“We'll need to go shopping today,” he said sleepily with his eyes still closed.

Rose smiled and teased him a little, “How terribly domestic.” He giggled at her attempt to make the word 'domestic' sound like his old, Northern accent.

“Yes, well, I sort of signed on for being a little bit domestic with the whole wedding thing, didn't I?” He looked up at her now and took in her still new features in the dim morning light. “You are lovely... You mentioned yesterday that you wanted to colour your hair again. Did you still want to do that or have you grown to like it?”

“I'm not sure. I suppose I'll have plenty of years to change it to whatever I'd like. For now I think, I'd like to be blonde again. It's what I'm used to. Although, I'll have to see how it looks with my slightly different skin tone, I suppose.” She pursed her lips in thought. After a moment of staring at her mouth, the Doctor leaned in and kissed her gently.

“You are absolutely right. Centuries to try different colours, you could try every colour of the rainbow if you wanted to. You might want to skip green though, if we were ever to visit Transinia 3, they would consider you a demon and burn you at the stake. They have very good pie there and it would be most unfortunate to have to stay away just because you dyed your hair green.” They were both smiling now at his familiar rambling. It was a way of hiding the fears over finding a way to solve their problem of him aging, but it was a familiar tactic. The Doctor sprung out of bed and started getting dressed in the clothes from the day before.

Rose got up more slowly and stretched the stiffness out of her back. Pulling on her clothes, she frowned at how her trousers were a little too short now. She decided to roll them up a little more and pretend that they were capris instead of full length trousers. It would have to do until she could buy some new clothes. She also decided that the sizes of her unmentionables needed to change slightly as well. The Doctor would hate how long it would take her to figure out all the new sizes she would need as well as a style she liked... jeans and t shirts just didn't feel right anymore. Maybe she could rope Jack into going shopping with her? Of course, the Doctor needed clothes too, but his shopping could be done as quickly as they had done the last time on their marathon through the stores in the other universe.

“Do you think Jack or Martha would want to go shopping with us? Maybe we should stop by there first just to see. I might need a while to try things on and it would be nice to have someone else's opinion. I doubt that you'll want to hang around waiting for me that long.” She twirled her wedding rings a bit and was grateful when she realized that they fit her new fingers perfectly.

“Well, as much as I'd love to stare at my beautiful wife all day long...” The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck and wrinkled his nose in that adorable way that she loved. “It would probably be best if I found something constructive to keep me out of trouble. And, you can surprise me with your brand new look! Just like I did that Christmas when I regenerated and met you back at your mum's flat in my brown suit! And the long coat. I loved that coat; Janis Joplin gave me that coat. Did I ever mention that?”

“Yes, love, you've mentioned that. Why don't we go to Torchwood and see who'd like to go on a shopping spree with us and when you've got everything you need, you can go find some trouble until I'm finished?” She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

“That sounds suspiciously like a plan.” They left the hotel hand-in-hand as they went to meet their friends.

Jack and Gwen (who had been filled in on the situation before they arrived) decided to take Rose on a whirlwind makeover through the shops of Cardiff. Once the Doctor and Ianto had picked up his essentials, they went back to the hub where the Doctor could help out with anything that popped up there. He was sorting through a pile of unidentified alien technology when his wife returned and Jack shushed them all as they snuck up behind him.

Making sure to block the Doctor's view of Rose, Jack cleared his throat. When the Doctor looked up, Jack announced formally, “I now present to you, the new and absolutely stunning, Rose Tyler!”

His breath caught in his throat and his heart skipped a beat. She had indeed coloured her hair to a lovely, warm blonde and it was styled perfectly. They must have taken her to a salon to get it perfect. She was wearing a beautiful, white blouse with gold thread embroidered around the neckline and on the loose sleeves. It was paired with a long, flared skirt in bright red and she wore shiny, red mary janes on her feet (flats, perfect for running). Once he started breathing again, the Doctor tried to pick up his jaw off the floor. He stood up and took her hands, grinning at her in the way that she always loved (even on his last face). He spun her around to get a better look at her and her skirt flared around her slender legs.

“Oh, Rose! You look amazing!” They hugged each other and placed their foreheads together. “Are you happy with it? I know it can take a little while to settle into a new regeneration.”

“Yes, Doctor. I love it. I'm glad Gwen talked me into going to a salon to colour my hair, I probably would have grabbed my usual colour and this looks much better than that would have.” She smiled at Gwen and Jack who were looking quite proud of themselves for helping with her makeover.

The Doctor once again got the feeling that her new face looked very familiar to him. He just couldn't place when he had seen her like this before. It solidified his thought that they would be crossing his past timeline at some point in a way that was significant enough for him to remember meeting her. The memory was fuzzy, but he was sure that red, white and gold were a part of that vision as well.

Jack decided that it was time to get back to the slightly more serious work ahead of them and leave the shopping sprees behind. “So, Doctor, Rose tells me that we have a bit of a quest on our hands now with these changes to her physiology?”

“Yes, well... I am quite determined that we will find a solution to that problem as soon as possible. To that end, I don't suppose you would know where we might be able to find ourselves our own vortex manipulator? We certainly can't take yours away, but we will definitely need to do some travelling in space and time in order to find the solution.” The Doctor was pacing now and tugging on his ear as he watched Myfanwy fly around near the ceiling.

Mickey and Martha came over to join the conversation as they overheard that their friends had a significant problem to fix. “What's the matter with Rose's new physiology?” asked Mickey.

“Well....” the Doctor stopped pacing and messed up his already gravity defying hair. “The problem isn't so much with her physiology as it is with the differences between our physiology now. You see, Rose and I decided to form a psychic bond between us. It is wonderful, intimate and permanent. The problem is, the strength of the bond that we created is so permanent that if one of us dies, we both die. That wasn't a big concern to us when our lifespans should have matched up fairly closely. But with Rose just starting out with a full set of regenerations, she should be able to live for thousands of years except that I now only have fifty or sixty years with my part-human body.” He felt Rose wrap her arms around his waist from behind and he entwined their fingers together.

Jack started assigning jobs as he set his team on solving this problem. The sooner he could help them solve this, the sooner they could get on with enjoying their lives together. He had waited so long to see the Time Lord give in to his obvious adoration of Rose. Now that they were finally together, he couldn't stand to see them spending the next fifty years waiting around for the inevitable. “Ok, we need something, be it technology or otherwise that will extend lifespans significantly. If I could bottle my immortality for you, Doctor, you know I would. I want everyone researching every resource we have for an answer on this and we'll reconvene to discuss what we've found in two hours.” Everyone nodded in agreement and headed towards their usual work areas while Jack led Rose and the Doctor up to his office. The three of them spent the next two hours scouring the books on the shelves there for any hint at something that might help.

When they all gathered in the conference room, they found that Ianto had taken the liberty to order dinner for everyone. There were several bags of chinese food as well as a large pizza on the table and everyone helped themselves as they settled in to discuss the options they had found.

Martha began the discussion with what she was able to find in all the alien medical files that they had access too. “I was able to find lists of several hospitals off-world or in the future that could keep you going for quite a while, but you would still be aging normally for a human and it would likely only give you another 50 to 100 years past what we would normally expect. It would give you more time to find a better solution, but I think this option should probably be put down as the last resort if we can't find something better.”

“Yes,” Rose said as she took the Doctor's hand, “I'd rather he didn't end up like Cassandra.” He winked at her and they both smiled.

Mickey took up the discussion then, “Ok, not sure I wanna know.” He rolled his eyes at their antics before continuing, “There are a fair number of technological ways to preserve your consciousness as a cyborg or using an android body, but I'm not sure how well those things would mix with telepathy and from what I understand, that's the big issue here.”

The Doctor contemplated that for a moment, “Well, ... the android option would definitely be out for telepathy. Cybernetics would be feasible, depending on which body parts I found needed replacing. It would only work as long as there wasn't any brain damage, aneurysms, Alzheimers, that kind of thing. Any replacement of brain tissue would definitely affect our link. Let's put that option on the list with Martha's medical interventions.”

Jack looked to Ianto next. Ianto nodded and began referencing some papers he had brought with him, “There are several myths and legends listed in the archives, but nothing substantiated. You would have to search out each of them to see which might be true, if any. I have the most likely ones printed out here for you.”

“Thank you, Ianto.” Rose smiled at him. “That sounds like our kind of quest. Right, Doctor? As long as we can find our own vortex manipulator.”

Putting a hand on Rose's shoulder, Jack reassured her, “I can come with you guys for a while and still be back here as if I never left. Don't worry, guys. You aren't alone on this.”

“Thank you, Jack. Rose and I really appreciate the help all of you are providing. I've saved the entire universe with less time than this, I'm sure we can find a way out of our little dilemma.” The Doctor took a big bite of pizza and smiled winningly.

Gwen decided then to voice her idea even if it might not be welcome, “I'm just wondering, have you considered whether there might be anything that the other Doctor could do to help?”

The Doctor next to Rose tensed a little at the suggestion. He closed his eyes for a moment to keep his fear buried. “I'm not discounting it completely, but other than the TARDIS, I know everything that he does and there isn't anything that he has on hand to help with this in a way that I can't. While we may contact him in the future, I'd rather do our own looking first.”

Rose squeezed his hand, “I know he isn't our favourite person right now, love, but would there be anything in the library on the TARDIS that could help?”

“Well, not on the TARDIS... If I had access to the libraries back on Gallifrey or the Matrix, I might be able to find something, but they're gone now.” He clasped his hands together on the table as he thought about his lost planet.

“Ok, if that's where we'll find the information that we need, then we'll find a way to get there in the past. Stow away on another TARDIS if we have to. You know where and when you've been, we'll figure out the best time to hitch a ride to Gallifrey in your past and go to the library there.” Rose knew there were probably a million reasons why this would be a dangerously bad idea, but they were the Stuff of Legend and they ate impossible for breakfast. She could see him working up all of the excuses why they couldn't in his head and just as he was about to start listing them off, she stopped him. “I know, it's dangerous, it's impossible, all of that stuff. But think about it. Take your time and really consider if there's a way. If that is where the information we need is located, then think of a way to get us there.”

“Alright, Rose, I'll think about it. For now, lets look over these myths and make a list of where we can try to look. Jack can take us for now and maybe along the way we'll find a way to get our own vortex manipulator.”

The rest of the team cleaned up the trash from dinner and went home for the night while Jack, Rose and the Doctor made a list of places to visit on their quest.


	15. Spoilers?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yup, you know who shows up in this chapter.

Chapter Fifteen – Spoilers?

 

They had crossed two legends off of their list and were taking a break for a picnic. The planet was called New Iceland and had been settled several centuries ago. They were currently in the 51st century, in a little park area outside a village called Asgard. The Doctor and Jack had spread out a blanket on the ground and Rose placed the bread, cheese and fruit they had bought where they could all reach everything. The Doctor had bought himself a suit that looked very much like the brown one that he always wore when he and Rose were travelling together before they were separated and Rose was wearing her favourite white and gold blouse with black trousers and her red mary janes. Her hair was braided to one side and in the bright sunshine of the day, the Doctor thought she looked radiant. Jack was wearing his usual dark trousers and blue shirt with suspenders. His long coat was lying on the ground next to them as it was far too warm for that where they were.

Rose was reclined with her head in the Doctor's lap and he would occasionally feed her some of the fresh fruit. She would kiss his fingers every time and Jack was laughing at how sickeningly adorable they were. Suddenly, someone was approaching them and the Doctor's eyes grew wide.

~'Love, this might be a bit awkward. I've met this woman before.'~ the Doctor quickly sent Rose his memories of the Library. Rose gasped and met his gaze with equally wide eyes.

~'Do you think she would know what I looked like before? Should we use a different name?'~ She'd like to avoid complicated explanations with this woman who knew her husband's real name.

~'She didn't recognize Donna on sight, just by name. I think we should be safe using your real name, she might be more suspicious of a name that she hadn't heard before. All the same, let's hide our wedding rings, she wouldn't know about that.'~ He carefully pulled off her rings and put them with his in his pocket.

“Hello, sweetie. This looks delightful.” River Song sat down on the edge of the blanket, near Jack. She was wearing brown boots, blue jeans and a beige shirt. Her dark blonde curls were just as unruly as they had been in the Library.

“River, nice to see you again.” He didn't remove Rose from her place reclining in his lap. “I'm not sure if you've met Jack or Rose before.”

“Ah, early days for you then.” She smiled at Jack in a way that almost rivalled his flirtatiousness. Jack took her hand and kissed the back of it.

“Charmed I'm sure. River was it?” Jack could see some tension coming from the Doctor regarding this woman, so he decided to play it as cool as possible.

“Professor River Song. You wouldn't be THE infamous Captain Jack? My, my... even more handsome than they say.” She winked at him. “And Rose? Goodness, I never thought I'd get to meet you, dear. Doctor, you never mentioned that I would get to spend time with the one and only Rose Tyler.”

“I do love it when my reputation precedes me,” Jack smirked at her.

~'He told her about me? The one and only?'~

~'She knows my name, love. I can't imagine that he would marry someone and not spend a little time talking about some of his past companions. Especially you. I've never felt a bond from her though, it may just be a wedding without a telepathic link. Who knows what the circumstances were.'~

“Well, I suppose now I have to remember not to tell you that you'll meet her.” The Doctor smiled at her and tried to think of what might be safe to talk with her about.

Jack looked confused at that statement, “What do you mean by that, Doctor?”

“Oh, sorry Jack. River and I seem to be meeting each other out of order.” This split off from the fully Time Lord version of himself made for an even more complicated off shoot of that. But she didn't recognize Rose, so they likely wouldn't run into her again. Ooh, he just remembered her mentioning a picnic at Asgard while checking her diary when they met before. 

Rose wanted to be gracious to this woman who would die saving her husband, well, both of their husbands really. “Are you hungry, River? We have plenty of food.” As River reached for some of the cheese, Rose noticed that she had a vortex manipulator on her wrist. She directed the Doctor's attention towards it and knew they were both trying to find a way to .... borrow it.

“Well, it is lovely to meet you as well, River. Though I'm not sure I warrant the title of the 'one and only.' That's a bit much to live up to.” Rose wasn't sure how much this woman knew about her, but she had clearly heard that she had been special to the Doctor.

“Oh, don't sell yourself short, sweetie. The legendary Bad Wolf herself?” River was also an expert at not giving away too much information. She had been doing it her whole life after all. River needed to avoid any mention of her being lost in another universe at all costs. If Rose was travelling with the Doctor, it had to be before she was lost after all.

“That's her, Dame Rose! So perceptive she is, always sees the things that I miss and a great judge of character. Sagacity, that's my Rose!” The Doctor babbled a bit as he tried to think of what topics might be safe for conversation.

“Oh really? I thought your title for me was jeopardy friendly?” Rose teased.

“Well...” the Doctor rubbed the back of his neck as he looked anywhere but at Rose.

River chuckled and snacked on some of the fruit that was left in their picnic containers. She chatted a bit with Jack about random things for a bit.

The Doctor's mind went into overdrive. Did she have a vortex manipulator in the Library? No, she was wearing that space suit and actually, they were already in the right century for her trip to the Library. She didn't need it and if she really needed a ride, she could probably call the other Doctor the same way she had called him through the psychic paper. Wait, she said something about Darillium being the last time she saw him... well, she also said that he picked her up. That settled it, the only question left was whether to make up an excuse to borrow it or take it without her noticing. He didn't know enough about her knowledge or abilities to be sure he could make up an excuse that she wouldn't shoot full of holes, so he decided that slight of hand would be better in this case.

~'I'm going to try and take it without her noticing, love. While I'm talking with her, can you tell Jack to set his for the hub and be ready to go?'~ Once he had it, the Doctor wanted to make a quick getaway before she could stop them.

~'Alright, I hope you know what you're doing.'~

The Doctor and Rose stood up from where they were wrapped around each other. And the Doctor asked River, “Would you mind walking with me a moment?” He took her arm in his and surreptitiously removed her vortex manipulator while he spoke with her quietly. “When you see me again, you need to make sure that you do NOT mention meeting Rose. It is extremely important, alright?”

“Yes, alright. I don't suppose you'll tell me why?” River gave him a suspicious look.

The Doctor was programming the vortex manipulator behind his back as he casually made his way in Rose's direction while facing Professor Song. “Well... you know...” He grabbed Rose's hand and put it onto the device on his wrist. River's mouth dropped open as she felt its loss from her own wrist. Rose and the Doctor looked each other in the eyes and smiled at her as they said in unison, “Spoilers!”

Rose, the Doctor and Jack all disappeared from the field in a flash of light. River was left with no choice but to find transportation off of this planet and back to the university where she was planning an expedition to find out what happened in The Library one hundred years ago.


	16. The Clock is Ticking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Did you guess who she was?

Chapter Sixteen – The Clock is Ticking

They were all laughing as they landed back in the Torchwood 3 hub. The Doctor fell into the nearest chair and Rose had her arms across her stomach as they both lost all control of their laughing. Jack agreed that it was funny, but knew he was missing part of the joke.

“Ok, so wanna let me in on the rest of it? Who was that?” Jack leaned up against a nearby table and crossed his arms over his chest while he waited for them to calm down enough to be capable of speech.

The Doctor was still chuckling a bit, but tried to school his expression a bit so he could explain. “Sorry, Jack. I've only met her once before, but she made it very clear that she knows me (well, the other me I suppose) VERY well. She knew my real name, which can only be told to my wife.” He pulled the standing Rose next to where he was sitting by putting an arm around her hips. “She knew all sorts of things about his future, he gave her a sonic screwdriver and well, the joke part of it is that any time I tried to get her to tell me something, she would say 'spoilers' and change the subject.”

“Ok, were you there or something Rosie? I noticed you didn't use a different name or anything,” Jack said.

“No, the Doctor shared the memory with me when she first arrived through our bond. He was worried about just what she might say or imply and didn't want it to make me uncomfortable.”

“Oh! Almost forgot, here you go, love.” He handed back her wedding rings and put his own back where it belonged. “Couldn't risk her seeing those, she would probably know that her Doctor never married Rose.”

“Well, she can keep HER Doctor. I've got my own Doctor.” Rose gave him a saucy look and a big wet kiss. She could feel a tension she hadn't noticed before relax in him and a feeling of relief. Had he been worried that she'd want to switch or something?

~'YOU are my husband, love. Not him. I'm yours forever.'~ She said forever in Gallifreyan so that he could get the full meaning that she intended, involving all regenerations and anything that could be beyond that. He pulled her tighter against himself.

Suddenly, the Doctor's brow furrowed. “I just remembered something from that first meeting with her. Rose, do I look older? She had commented about how young I looked before. It's only been about six months since I split off from him.” 

Rose took a moment to study his face more closely. She looked at him every day, so she might not have noticed something. Jack came over for a closer look too.

Stroking her fingers through his hair, Rose said, “Well, you've always had those adorable crinkles around your eyes, but I don't remember you having these little grey hairs before.”

“What does this mean, Doctor? We were already worried about you aging faster than Rose, has our time limit just gotten shorter?” Jack knew the Doctor worked best under pressure, but this was not going to help the situation.

“I need to run some tests.” The Doctor bolted from the room towards the medical area with Rose following right behind.

Martha was already there and the Doctor asked her to help him with some blood tests. No, no, no... this was NOT happening. How fast was he aging? They needed time to check through all of these legends, they wouldn't have time if he was the physical equivalent of 60 or 70 in a year or two. Even the medical interventions that Martha had suggested before wouldn't help if this was going as rapidly as he thought it might be. He was nowhere near going grey before and it had been less than a year. He paced around the small room frantically. 

Rose stood by the computer and tried to make sense of the information as some of the tests finished running. She knew he was starting to panic and while he did work well under pressure, this was not what they needed right now. What were their options if this was really happening? Gallifrey. He said there might be information on Gallifrey. Had he worked out a way to get them there or had he forgotten about it completely? She was pretty sure that the current Doctor couldn't just take his TARDIS back there whenever he liked or he wouldn't miss it so much. Could they hitch a ride on a younger TARDIS with an earlier version of himself?

The Doctor started scanning over the results coming up on the various screens. He nearly knocked his glasses off of his face as both hands dove into his hair and tugged at it frustratedly. “No, no, no, no, NO!” He closed his eyes as he took a deep breath through his nose. “The rate of cellular decay looks like I'm aging at a rate equivalent to ten human years to one actual year. I've got maybe 5 or 6 years left unless we can find a solution.” He grabbed Rose into a fierce hug and buried his face in her shoulder. She rubbed his back and shushed him softly while looking over his shoulder at Jack and Martha. Their faces showed nothing but sympathy and worry for their friends.

It was time for Rose to give her husband that needed nudge towards the only solution that she could see. “Doctor, what about finding a way to the library on Gallifrey?”

He pulled away to look at her face suddenly, “What?” Rose could see that his brain was trying to process what she had just said as his eyes darted back and forth. “No. It's impossible.”

“Come on, love. Remember, you and I eat impossible for breakfast. What if we hitched a ride on an earlier TARDIS? Like we did when we came back to this universe? The zero room shielded us from being sensed telepathically before, do you think that would work again?”

His head started to wobble side to side a bit before eventually turning into nodding, yes that the idea might work. Running through all of the times that he went to Gallifrey or came across the Matrix in his past, he needed to find the best time to sneak in there without anyone noticing. Suddenly, his face froze with wide eyes. He remembered when he had seen Rose's face before. How?

His brow furrowed as he tried to remember all the details from the trial. Why would he do that? Was it all a trick of some kind? Ok, he needed help analyzing this situation and Rose was the best at that.

“I think I know where we have to go. But I need your help to figure out what I did and why to make this work properly. We can't afford to mess this up or it could change my entire past. Can we get everyone together in the conference room?”

As the group left the medical area, Jack asked Mickey, Gwen and Ianto to join them. Ianto made coffee and tea for everyone and once they were all seated, the Doctor brought his gaze back from wherever he had been staring and seemed to have his thoughts in order. He was standing and paced back and forth as he explained.

“Alright, this will take some time to explain. I can only give you my point of view from the events, but I think there may have been more behind it all that I didn't see. Also, because it involved some events in my own future, certain details are fuzzy in my memory. It's a bit of a natural self-defence for Time Lords. If we encounter a future version of ourselves, our memory is suppressed until we reach the future point in the timeline. This whole series of events should have been completely suppressed for me, but most of it is still there. It could be because of the meta-crisis or it could be that certain details needed to be remembered for this loop to be completed properly.” The Doctor had been pacing, but now sat down next to Rose and looked around the room at the group of friends who would help him.

“During my sixth life, I was pulled out of time and put on trial for interfering and behaviour unbecoming a Time Lord.” He scoffed before continuing, “Anyway, I had a feeling from the moment that Rose regenerated that I had seen this face before and now I remember when that was. Rose, looking the way she does now, was the Inquisitor for the trial.”

“But how is that possible? Even if we somehow manage to get there, how will we convince the Time Lords to place me as the Inquisitor?” Rose's brow furrowed as she contemplated that problem.

“Let's worry about that part later. The prosecution for the case was referred to as the Valeyard and I was told that his goal in the trial was to take all of my remaining regenerations. We only get 12 of them. 13 lives and I was only on number 6 at the time.”

Jack spoke up as his Time Agent training brought his knowledge into this, “But wouldn't that create a paradox? Destroying your past self before you were even created in the future?”

“Yes, it would. But the Time Lords had ways of holding that kind of paradox together. That's not the point though, I don't believe the claim that he was really after that. I've been contemplating the whole scenario and I think it was a bit of a sham. There were several things that were brought to light by that trial. The High Council had been trying to hide a conspiracy. They supposedly made a deal with the Valeyard to arrange the trial and reward him with my regenerations so that they could conceal the conspiracy. He would have had to convince them that he was truly motivated towards my destruction in order to gain their trust. He also had the Master more terrified of him than me (oh pronouns are going to get messy with this, I can tell). So, let's use Doctor for my past self and Valeyard for the role that I will be playing in this charade.” This Doctor started running his hands through his hair and began pacing again.

“So, the Master was so afraid of the Valeyard, that he was willing to help the Doctor to defeat him. By the end of it all, the corrupt High Council was brought down and a new Council was to be elected. It was believed that the Valeyard was destroyed in the Matrix, BUT what if it was all a show? This could be my way to get unrestricted access to the Matrix for the information that we need while allowing my past self to uncover the conspiracy. My memory is fuzzy, it's possible that there was even a point where I had managed to let myself in on the plan.” He fell back into his chair and stared at a point on the table, clearly thinking again.

Rose took his hands and rubbed her thumbs along the backs of them. “Ok, Doctor, this does sound like one way to gain access to the Matrix and since you seem to already remember us doing it, I don't think we have much choice in the matter.” She managed to catch his gaze and looked lovingly into his eyes. “What do we need to do to find a way to set all of these things up? Me as inquisitor, the Master afraid of you, the High Council believing you and making you Prosecutor... this is going to be complicated isn't it?”

Mickey spoke up, “That's the understatement of the century. Has your life always been this complicated, Doctor?”

The Doctor smiled for the first time since they had returned from Asgard. “Yes, Mickey, I'm afraid it has. And meeting myself is always interesting to say the least.” 

He started making a list of the various things that would need to be prepared to make the plan for the trial work out the way they needed it to. Their list of tasks also included finding out who in the Doctor's past they could involve to get Rose positioned as Inquisitor. It was agreed that it was her job in that position to make sure that the Time Lords in the court room (who were likely going to be on the new High Council after it was all over) believed that the Doctor had saved them all from danger and left him alone for a while. She could also conceal her Doctor gaining access to the Matrix information after it was all over.

“Who on Gallifrey would help you, Doctor? Not just as a personal favour, but to uncover the conspiracy? Was there a police force or something?” Rose was grasping at straws as he got more and more agitated over needing help from bureaucrats.

“I could ask Braxiatel, he was my brother. He had some political contacts, but the bigger force that would most closely resemble police would be the Celestial Intervention Agency.”

“The CIA? Seriously?” Martha was almost laughing. “Did the United States steal the acronym from your lot then?”

“Yes! Well... maybe. Anyway, if we can convince them that there is a conspiracy to uncover and that my going undercover this way is the only way to reveal it, they might be able to arrange for Rose to be set up as Inquisitor for the trial.” The tension in the Doctor's shoulders seemed to ease a little.

Rose could feel that he was starting to gain confidence in this plan. So, she gave him a mental caress to show her affection and help him relax more. “I guess I'm going to need to read up on Gallifreyan law to act as Inquisitor. Do I have to wear one of those stupid collar things?” Rose looked disgusted with the idea.

“Oh, Rose. From what I remember, you looked lovely.” He smiled warmly and sent her his memory of how she looked in white, gold and red. Interesting that those were the colours that she so often chose to wear in her clothes already.

The plans were made, now they just needed to go through with them. Hopefully, after it was all over, they would have the answers they needed from the Matrix to find a way to help this Doctor regain his ability to regenerate.


	17. TARDISes and Time Lords

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From this point on, it would be helpful if you were familiar with some Classic Who episodes. I think I've explained most of this well enough that you don't NEED to have seen them, but they are really good and quite helpful in knowing exactly what's going on. The one referenced in this chapter is The Mark of the Rani.

Chapter Seventeen – TARDISes and Time Lords

The first step in their plan involved getting this version of the Doctor to meet the Master at that point in his timeline. In order to accomplish this, Rose and the Doctor needed to visit 19th century England and a little village called Killingworth.

“The first thing we need to do is attach this device to this Doctor's TARDIS.” The Doctor said as he led Rose towards the mine shaft.

“What is it? What does it do?” She knew they weren't stowing away on the Doctor's TARDIS this time. The plan was to scare the Master and take off with the Rani's TARDIS since it was within the proper time stream of Gallifrey in the period of the trial.

“This device records the events in the surrounding area and relays them to the Matrix. It will be necessary during the trial. Newer TARDISes already have them, but mine is an older model, so we have to install it now.” They reached the top of the mine shaft, but couldn't see anything in the darkness.

“Ok, so how do we get down to the TARDIS then? Do you have another orange space suit and an elevator? She does get tossed around a lot doesn't she?” Rose looked carefully down into the darkness and didn't see a ladder or anything.

“Not to worry, my love. We can use the vortex manipulator as a short range teleport down to the bottom. Come on!” The Doctor wrapped his arm around her waist and she put her hand on the manipulator.

They materialized in the dark cave, next to the TARDIS which was lying on its side. “Oh no! Doctor!” Rose was checking for damage on the Old Girl instantly.

“It's alright, love, she'll be fine. Let's get inside.” The Doctor used Rose's old key that they had brought back with them from the other universe to let them in. As soon as they were inside the doors, the gravity direction switched from the direction of the ground outside to the direction of the floor inside. He gave Rose a hand to make sure she didn't fall over making the switch.

“Wow! I've never seen her looking like this! Aren't you beautiful!” Rose went over to stroke the console and heard the TARDIS hum happily back to her.

The Doctor wedged himself under the console to install the recording device. “Yes, well... I got a bit bored of this style after a while.” Opening a panel, his screwdriver started to whir. He could hear a shift in his connection to the TARDIS. It was like she was talking, but not to him. Who else could she be talking to though?

“Rose, is she communicating with you? Since when has she been doing that?”

“I started hearing her a little bit after the Game Station. It's stronger now though, is it important?” Rose was peeking around the room and into the corridors a bit to see all the differences.

“You should only be able to hear her if you were bonded with her like I am. It must have happened when you two connected. It's not a problem, of course, just interesting... I didn't know you could hear her. Anyway, I'm done here. Let's move on to finding the Rani's TARDIS.” He closed the panel under the console and dusted himself off as he stood.

Using the vortex manipulator, they teleported back up to the top of the mine shaft and made their way into the forest nearby.

“Once we get inside the Rani's TARDIS, we need to hide from the Master and the Rani. When I do confront them, you need to stay hidden. During the trial, he did not recognize you.” The Doctor needed to make the Master fear him more than the past Doctor so that he would try to set them up against each other in the Matrix.

“Alright, love. Do we need to worry about the other Doctor sensing me?” Rose was stumbling a bit through the forest area where they were walking. He told her that the Rani's TARDIS was hidden inside one of the abandoned mines in this area.

“No, I don't think so. We'll be fairly far from the past me at the time that we are going into the Rani's TARDIS.” They had reached the right cave and watched the entrance to be sure they saw the Master and the Rani leave with the land mines they were about to set for the past Doctor. Once they were gone, Rose and the Doctor made their way to the slightly Roman looking TARDIS. 

“Well, this is different.” Rose said when they entered. This console room was shiny black and silver. It looked nothing like the TARDIS interior that she was used to from her travels with the Doctor.

The Doctor settled himself under the console. “I just need to make some adjustments to the sabotage that the other me just did here. I adjusted the navigational system and velocity regulator so that it would speed out of control when they tried to leave. Now I just need to set it to stop exactly 30 seconds after it takes off. And take them by surprise when it's done so that I can take control of this TARDIS.”

“Alright, where are we going to hide? I presume we don't have a lot of time before someone comes back.” Rose was looking down the hallway nervously.

“I'm done here, let's go have a look.” He took her hand and they found a spot not too far from the console room where they could brace themselves during the drastic acceleration. He had borrowed Jack's sonic blaster for exactly this encounter. He had absolutely no plans to use it (in fact, it was powered down), but he needed to make the Master believe that he was much more dangerous than the Doctor because he was evil. Threatening them with a gun was so far beyond what he would normally do, that should accomplish the task.

Rose was fidgeting with her rings. She knew this whole plan was dangerous, but this particular face off was going to be the most life-threatening part of it. They had to wait quite a while before they heard them enter the console room and the Doctor held her tightly as they braced themselves against the walls of the alcove while the TARDIS rocked out of control. The Doctor counted down the seconds before he knew it would stop and he heard a crash of glass breaking and them saying something about growth being accelerated from time spillage. Oh bollocks, there were T-Rex embryos out there!

As soon as things went back to normal, he stormed into the console room. He saw that the T-Rex was still relatively small and was focused on the Master and the Rani. He went to the console and quickly piloted it to the Earth during the Cretaceous period and opened the doors.

“Who the HELL are you! What are you doing in my TARDIS?!” The Rani shrieked.

The Doctor pointed the deactivated blaster towards them, “Get outside, now.”

The Rani and the Master looked at each other, then at the dinosaur and ran out the doors. The T-Rex followed them out and was still heading towards them when it winced from a loud whirring noise. The Doctor was holding up his sonic screwdriver in a blast to scare it off. The dinosaur took the hint and ran off for now.

“Thank you, I suppose. Now, are you going to tell us who you are?” The Master was just as curious as the Rani about the identity of this person. He must be a Time Lord to be able to pilot a TARDIS.

The Doctor was blocking them from re-entering the TARDIS and gave them his best evil grin (oh how he loved acting melodramatic). “Me? I'm the Doctor. Just not the Doctor that you know. I'm from the future, a bit of an unusual situation between my twelfth and final incarnations.”

The Rani smirked. She thought she knew what to expect from a goody-two-shoes like the Doctor. “So, what now? You bring us to the CIA to be imprisoned?”

“Actually, no. I could kill you both myself, or we could just see how you two fare against a world full of hungry dinosaurs.” He smiled as both of them gaped at his words. “Oh, didn't I mention? I'm not quite as peace-loving in my old age. Have fun!” The Doctor went back into the TARDIS and locked the doors. He then piloted them to Gallifrey, about one month before the trial and right outside his brother's house.

Back on prehistoric Earth, the Master and the Rani were running for their lives from a very large Tyrannosaurus Rex. Just as they found themselves cornered in front of the beast, it roared loudly and from out of nowhere, a blue police box flew straight into its mouth. A few seconds later, the whole dinosaur dematerialized along with the TARDIS that was lodged in its throat. The two Time Lords looked at each other and shrugged.


	18. Welcome to the Family

Chapter Eighteen – Welcome to the Family

“You can come out now, love. They are gone and we're on Gallifrey.” The Doctor took Rose's hand as she came out of hiding deeper inside the Rani's TARDIS. He could feel that she was nervous still. “What's the matter, Rose?”

“I... well, I'm not sure I can act like a Time Lord. Are they going to know that I'm not really one of them?” She was terrified of being discovered and imprisoned or something.

“Don't you worry about a thing. To start with, we are at my brother's house and while we didn't really get along all that well, he wouldn't hurt me or you. Also, I remember vividly the fact that you were the most regal of Time Ladies as the Lady Inquisitor. If you aren't ready to act it now, you will be when you need to be.” He wrapped her in his arms comfortingly and kissed her while flooding their bond with feelings of love and reassurance. Then they left the TARDIS hand-in-hand.

Waiting outside the doors was a tall man with dark hair and a grumpy look on his face. He wore the loose fitting, neutral coloured clothing that was common on Gallifrey when not in formal attire. The Doctor tensed slightly and squeezed Rose's hand.

“Hello, Brax. Long time, no see,” the Doctor said with feigned joviality.

“Do I know you? Neither of you seem familiar to me.” Braxiatel had his hands clasped behind his back as he eyed the couple warily.

“Well, I'm actually a bit out of my proper time stream, BUT with very good reason. I'm the Doctor.”

“I see. I would say that I look forward to hearing your very good reason to be breaking the laws of time, but it will probably mean no end of headaches, so I'm not looking forward to it at all. And your friend?” He gestured to Rose as he took in her attire, “Another human?”

“That is actually, a bit more complicated than you might think. This is my wife, Rose, and she was human up until a couple months ago. A bit of an accident involving the heart of my TARDIS and several thousand Daleks and her turning into a bit of a goddess temporarily... In any case, she is now just as much a Time Lord as you.”

Braxiatel looked a bit confused at the explanation, but when was anything involving his brother simple to explain. 

Rose inclined her head and bowed slightly towards her brother-in-law the way her husband had shown her. He explained that touch telepaths preferred not to shake hands in greeting and this was more appropriate. “It's a pleasure to meet you Braxiatel.”

He returned the bow in her direction and gave a slight smile, though it was obvious that he didn't smile often. He gestured broadly towards the house in invitation and they followed him inside where they could all sit more comfortably. The room was large, with very high ceilings. The furniture looked modern, sleek and comfortable in a very utilitarian style. All of the colours were tans, browns and greens. Overall the space was clean looking and welcoming.

“Alright, Theta, you're here for a reason so let's have it. You've never been one for social calls with those of us on Gallifrey. Especially when you are here in a different incarnation than the one that fits with our timeline.” Braxiatel sat in a chair across from the couch where the Doctor and Rose we nestled together. His hands were clasped together and Rose wondered if the man ever relaxed.

“Well,” the Doctor began and rubbed the back of his neck. “This is a rather difficult time loop to be honest. I remember encountering this me and this Rose about a month from now in your time.”

Brax's brow furrowed. “You remember meeting your future self? You shouldn't remember it!”

“I realize that, but there are a couple of reasons why I might. For one, this is an important and complicated scenario that will require quite a bit of planning to implement the way I remember it happening. Also, I was not what would be considered a normal regeneration.” Contemplating exactly how to explain this part of it, the Doctor rubbed both hands down his face for a moment.

“The short story is that I am a biological meta-crisis between my full Time Lord self and a human friend of mine. Therefore, I am at this point part-human. We also have a bit of a complication in that we have recently discovered that I am rapidly aging and will probably only have another 5 or 6 years. The fact that I both am the Doctor and not completely the Doctor could contribute to the fact that I remember the upcoming events.” He was pretty sure that his brother wouldn't want the full explanation of the sword fight and the hand and the aborted regeneration. Brax always preferred to get straight to the point.

Sighing mightily, Braxiatel accepted the headache this was already causing and asked the dreaded question, “What do you need help with?”

The Doctor explained the conspiracy being hidden by the High Council and how this fake trial would uncover the corruption. Rose told him that the Doctor remembered seeing her as the Lady Inquisitor for the trial and she would need help in learning what she would need to know in that position as well as help in being placed as Inquisitor. The Doctor made it clear that he would need to go undercover and convince the current High Council that he wanted to help them conceal the truth in exchange for his past self's regenerations. He would also need to keep up the charade for the Time Lords in the trial room even after it was uncovered, since they would likely make up part of the new High Council and he needed them to trust his past self.

“How exactly does all this help with your aging problem, Doctor? If you aren't looking for help from the High Council, then what are you looking for? And why come here instead of looking for help in your own time?” Braxiatel knew there was more to this plan than he was being told.

“I need to access the Matrix. I'm sure that somewhere in there is some information that will help me find a way to fix this. I don't have access to it in my own time and you know I can't tell you why. As it is, you can never tell me that the trial was all an act. As far as I remembered, this future me was pure evil. There are some fuzzy spots though, so I may have told myself what was happening near the end and forgotten that part.” The Doctor was leaning his elbows on his knees as he explained and hoped that his brother would agree to help them. They needed allies to set this up properly. “Oh! And someone should probably go and pick up the Master and the Rani from prehistoric Earth, so they don't get eaten by a dinosaur. The Master is supposed to be a part of all this as well, so whoever rescues them should accidentally mention some key information about the trial.”

“Alright, Theta, I'll help you. We should probably ask the CIA to assist us in this as well. I have a few trusted contacts that we can inform about the situation and they can make sure that your wife is the Inquisitor for the trial. They can probably also take care of retrieving the renegades from Earth.” Brax crossed his arms over his chest. “Do you need somewhere to stay while we set all this up? You two probably shouldn't be seen together in public if your charade is to work.”

The Doctor sighed, “You're probably right. And I'd rather not stay in the Rani's TARDIS. We can probably hand that over to the CIA actually, there are some very questionable and incriminating experiments running in there. I don't suppose we could hide out here? Or is there some other place that you could send us to hide for now?”

“You can stay at my cottage, it's fairly isolated from prying eyes. I'll be honest with you, brother, I'd really rather not live under the same roof as you again.” The words were harsh but the smirk that graced Brax's face showed that his intentions were not hurtful. “I'll transport you there today. Would the two of you like to join me for supper first?”

Rose had spent far too long holding her tongue, “Thank you, Braxiatel, that would be lovely. And we really appreciate your help with all of this.”

After dinner, Rose went outside to look around. She had seen some of the Doctor's memories of Gallifrey, but seeing it for herself was completely different. He had looked at it as home. Lovely yes, but boring and normal. To Rose, it was new and fresh and wonderful. She stayed out there for some time looking at the twin suns as they set and smelled the red grass.

Inside, Braxiatel couldn't help asking a few more questions, “Why is she with you and not the full Time Lord version of yourself? Wouldn't that be the more sensible pairing?”

With a small, tense smile, the Doctor answered, “As far as we knew, she was human... And I was part-human, so our lifespans should have matched. The perfect pair. So, the other Doctor locked us both out of the TARDIS and left us to have the perfect little life together. We both love her, but we felt that she deserved to have a life that was normal for her. We are bonded, Brax. Not just a surface bonding either. If I die in 5 or 6 years, she will die with me. I NEED to find a way to fix this.”

“Gods, Theta! You bonded with her? You never could do things like the rest of us, could you? I understand why this is so important to you. You'd risk your own mortality in an instant, but you'd never want someone to fall with you, especially when you are in love. I sincerely hope that you find the information you need.” He patted the Doctor on the back in an unaccustomed gesture of friendliness.

The Doctor nodded to him and stepped outside to join his wife to watch the suns set. Coming up behind her, he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. Rose leaned her head against his and sighed happily. They listened to the silver leaves in the trees as they made light tinkling noises rustling in the breeze and watched as the orange sky turned a deep red before darkness fell. They joined Braxiatel and he drove them to his cottage where they would spend the next month preparing and coordinating with the CIA for the trial.


	19. Mother's Day

Chapter Nineteen – Mother's Day

They were definitely isolated at the cottage. Both of them loved it though. It allowed Rose to see the Doctor's home planet without having to deal with all the stuffy Time Lords (for now) and just enjoy the beauty of the landscape. The Doctor took Rose for a walk in the surrounding fields and they found a nice spot to lay in the grass. They held hands and just listened to the sounds of nature on Gallifrey. The insects and birds sounded different from what she was used to on Earth and she tried to memorize the smell of the grass and soil. They both knew they would never be able to come back here once this was all over, so they needed to enjoy what little time they had.

Brax had said that he would arrange for meeting with agents from the CIA here so that they wouldn't risk being seen together by anyone that might be involved in the future trial. They couldn't contact any of the Doctor's friends, unfortunately. Both because of the risk of them mentioning something to the past Doctor and because of the inevitable question of why he missed them so terribly. Braxiatel did contact their mother. Not only so that they could meet but also because she was bound to hear about the trial and they didn't want her to worry for the future of her son.

Rose could feel the anxiety rising in her husband as they awaited his mother's arrival. He hadn't seen her since before the war and Rose could tell he was worried whether his mother would approve of her. She gave him a long hug and rubbed his back.

When his mother finally arrived, they both bowed to her. She looked to be maybe 60 if she were human, with dark, reddish hair streaked with white in a few places. She had a friendly smile and looked at both of them with love in her eyes.

“Mother, it is so good to see you. This is my wife, Rose Tyler. Rose, this is my mother, Felicity. Did Braxiatel explain anything about how and why we are here?” The Doctor was rubbing the back of his neck as he always did when he was a little nervous. 

“He tried to explain some of it, but I got the impression that he didn't quite pay attention to all of the details. Perhaps we could discuss it a bit more.” Felicity placed her hand on his shoulder.

Rose decided it was time to be the good hostess, “Why don't you two go and sit while I make us all some tea?” She squeezed her husband's hand in support and went to the kitchen when he nodded.

From the kitchen, Rose could hear him explain how Rose used to be human, but thanks to her exposure to the heart of his TARDIS, she had somehow regenerated into a Time Lady. By the time she joined them with the tea service, he was just finishing his explanation of his creation as a human-Time Lord biological meta-crisis.

“It is really very nice to meet you, Felicity,” Rose said to her mother-in-law.

“Careful, Rose,” warned the Doctor.

“Not to worry, dear. I gathered that since you wanted to see me now, that I am not with you in your time. I am glad to have the opportunity to meet you, Rose, as well. He needs someone to love. He was never meant for the kinds of marriages most Time Lords are accustomed to.” Felicity smiled at Rose warmly. Rose was pleased about meeting her approval and she could feel the Doctor's joy with the fact as well.

“Mother, I have a bit of an awkward favour to ask. I can't risk being seen here on Gallifrey, so if you could get something for me I'd really appreciate it. I can't get it in my own time for the same reason that I can't access the Matrix then either. Could you find a set of bonding pendants for us? The rings are human symbols, but I'd like us to have the Gallifreyan symbols as well.” The Doctor was holding both of Rose's hands rather tightly and rubbing the backs of them with his thumbs as he awaited an answer from his mother.

“Of course I can, dear. If I am unable to bring them back myself, then I'll send them along with Braxiatel. Now, why don't the two of you tell me a story about some of your travels together. I know he can't keep still for long, so I'm sure you've seen some marvellous places.”

They spent the rest of the afternoon talking about meeting Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria. They also told her about their time in the parallel universe and what happened to her parents and brother there. Felicity was wise and experienced enough to know that she could never tell these stories to anyone, but was glad to know that her son was living a happy life, long after she was gone. When it was time for her to leave, she hugged them both tightly and kissed her son on the cheek.

That evening, they sat outside to watch the suns set as they had the night before. Rose's arm was wrapped around his waist and his was over her shoulders as they leaned their heads together.

“I love you, Doctor.”

“And I love you, Rose. Today was one of the best days I think I've ever had.” He squeezed her a little tighter as he contemplated how this might never have happened at all.

The remaining weeks leading up to the trial passed quickly. Rose spent most of her time reading books on the Time Lord judicial system while the Doctor arranged all sorts of details with the CIA. When the time came to go to the space station where the trial would take place, they were both ready to play their roles in this. The Doctor had already approached the High Council to convince them of his desire to help them conceal the information surrounding Ravalox and they had agreed to allow him the position of Prosecutor in the enquiry of the Doctor's activities with the promise of his remaining regenerations should he be successful. 

The CIA had agreed to the Doctor's stipulation that once it was over, he would have access to the Matrix for a time to try to find the information that they needed. Afterward, they would need to meet up with another younger Doctor to hitch a ride back out of the area of Gallifrey as the time lock from the war prevented access in or out of it's entire history except through the travels that were already there. By using the Rani's TARDIS within that part of her timeline, he was able to gain access in, but their vortex manipulator wouldn't get them back out again. The agents they were working with in the CIA assured them that they would be free to go.

“I'm sure you already realize this, Rose, but the other Doctor in the courtroom will be able to sense that you are his wife. I don't think it will complicate things because I already remember that all of this happened, even if I didn't remember that you were my wife after it was all over.” The Doctor knew they needed to talk about this before they went into the trial. They needed to be prepared for everything.

“Yes, I know we'll sense each other. Will he and I be able to communicate the way I can with you?” Rose wasn't sure if that would be good or bad in this situation.

“To be honest, I'm not sure. If you find that you can, you need to be very careful of what you tell him. It would be best if he didn't know about the charade until the end. There will be times where it is important that he is genuinely angry and upset because you know that I am the most motivated to solve problems when I'm like that. It also means less necessity for acting, at least on his side of it.” He tugged on his ear as he thought about how much acting he was going to have to do through all of this. “I'm going to have to act my heart out... my life is literally on the line in all this.”

Rose wrapped him in her arms and kissed his cheek. “Don't worry about it. I've been studying all those law books and I'm in charge of running this thing. I won't let anything bad happen to either one of you.”

“I ought to warn you ahead of time, since you've been rather isolated from the Time Lords here. In formal situations like this, they have a tendency to use just about every word in the thesaurus that they can. If there's a word that you're unfamiliar with, just ask me,” he tapped on his temple to indicate that it should be between them only. “If there is a word that is an Earth colloquialism, pretend you don't know what it means and ask for clarification. Can't have them guessing that you're from Earth.” The Doctor kissed her forehead and snuggled her closer.

“Well, at least my new accent is posh enough for this.” Rose smirked at him. She was still getting used to it herself even after three months. Adapting physically to a new body wasn't as difficult as the changes in her personality and speech patterns. It was a concept that she had learned to accept about the Doctor, but it wasn't something she ever thought she would need to get used to in herself.

“You, my love, will be the most regal of all Time Ladies for this charade. Then, we can go back to being ourselves and both be absolutely guilty of behaviour unbecoming a Time Lord.” He kissed her sweetly and reached into his pocket. “Rose, I got something important from Brax today. I want you to have it before this all gets started.”

The Doctor pulled from his pocket two pendants on gold chains. The pendants featured an orange stone with veins of gold running throughout. One was a rounded square shape and the other was a rounded triangle that was narrow at the top and wider at the bottom. He had tears pooling in his eyes, but he was smiling brightly, so they were definitely tears of joy.

“I never thought we'd be able to do this, my love. Here, you take the square one, that's mine and you'll put it on me. The other one is yours.” Holding her triangular pendant in his left hand, he rubbed the back of his neck with his right. “There are words that go with this and they might sound a little familiar.”

He placed her pendant around her neck and spoke in Gallifreyan. She understood the words now, but they had once been roughly translated to her as, “You were/are/ever will be the most precious and beloved person in all my lives, past, present, and future. My hearts always have/do/will yearn for yours to be near me and make me whole.” Tears started to pool in her own eyes as she realized that he had been secretly saying those words to her since before they were even separated.

She placed his pendant around his neck and repeated the same words to him. They kissed each other deeply and by the time they broke free of it, they were both breathing heavily.

“Thank you, Doctor. Tomorrow, we WILL find a way to fix everything and we will have our proper forever together.”

They spent what would be their last night ever on the planet Gallifrey. They showered together and Rose took her time washing him thoroughly and exploring his lovely body. Then, she washed his hair and ran her fingers through his hair, scraping his scalp and kissing him roughly. When it was his turn, the Doctor started washing her from her toes, up her legs and spent an inordinate amount of time on her bum and private areas before moving on to her tummy, breasts and back. He washed her hair and ran his fingers through the long tresses gently as he added conditioner. Once her hair was rinsed well, he squeezed out the excess water and braided her hair up and out of the way so that it wouldn't tangle as it dried.

After drying off a bit, they tumbled into bed and tangled their legs together. Both of them found that their hands could not rest in one place as they needed to touch every inch of each other. Their bond was flooded with passion and love and as he entered her, they both saw stars. They made love late into the night despite their plans to get up early enough to see the suns rise before they had to leave.


	20. All the World's a Stage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the first chapter detailing the Trial of a Timelord episodes. I think I've summarized them enough to be able to understand them without watching, but they are on dailymotion if you want to take the time. I didn't change any of the dialogue from the episodes, just added the thoughts and mental conversations. I can't take credit for what was already in the episodes.

Chapter Twenty – All the World's a Stage

 

Once the Doctor helped Rose into her formal attire for the trial and donned his own rather menacing looking robe, they kissed for the last time until this was over. They needed to travel separately to the space station where the trial would take place as they could not be seen associating before it began. Braxiatel was the one to bring Rose to the proceedings and the Doctor was given a Time Ring by their contacts in the CIA.

Rose knew that from this point on, she needed to exude confidence, even if she didn't feel it in the slightest. She was in charge now and she needed to look like she deserved the position. Through their link, despite the distance, she could feel her husband sending her his love and assurance that everything would be fine.

As Rose left the TARDIS that she had arrived in, she bowed to Braxiatel. “It was a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for your help.”

“The pleasure was all mine, my lady. You are very good for him and I hope you find the solution that you need.” At that, he re-entered the TARDIS and she would never see her brother-in-law again.

As she waited outside the court room, one of their CIA contacts whispered to her that as soon as the sixth Doctor was taken out of time, they were sending in a team to assist in the rescue of his companion. She felt very reassured by that news and passed the information along to her husband. She was surprised when she felt the arrival of the other Doctor. The link with him felt different somehow; Muffled slightly. She sensed his sudden confusion as he noticed her presence, but didn't seek out a connection at all and (for now) tightened her mental shields to prevent any connection until she was ready for it.

Rose was guided into the trial room by the Citadel guards and took her place between the two Doctors. She reminded herself that she needed to think of her husband as the Valeyard for today. There couldn't be any slip ups in that regard.

“Would it be too much to ask what all this is about?” the brightly coloured Doctor said in the arrogant tone that he reserved for Gallifreyan bureaucrats.

“The accused will remain silent until invited to speak.” Rose replied haughtily, putting on her best airs and graces for this performance.

“The accused? Do you mean me?” The Doctor's indignation was obvious.

“I call upon the Valeyard to open the case.” Rose looked to her husband for the first time since they had separated that morning. She felt his mental smirk as he began the melodramatic charade.

“By order of the High Council, this in an impartial enquiry into the behaviour of the accused person, known as the Doctor, who is charged that he, on diverse occasions has been guilty of conduct unbecoming a Time Lord.” The Valeyard put on his best impression of all of the Time Lords that he despised. Unbecoming a Time Lord indeed, when had he ever cared about that?

“Not guilty!” shouted the Doctor.

“He is also charged with, on diverse occasions, transgressing the First Law.” He felt his wife's amusement with that charge. They were transgressing the First Law just by being here. “It is my unpleasant task, Madam Inquisitor, to prove to the enquiry that the Doctor is an incorrigible meddler in the affairs of other peoples and planets.”

“Yes. I see, Valeyard, that it is on record that the Doctor has faced trial already for offences of this nature.” ~'Not that you've ever planned on stopping said behaviour.'~ Rose added through their bond.

“That is so, my lady, and I shall contend that the High Council showed too great a leniency on that occasion.”

“Very well. Doctor, you've heard the charges. Do you wish to say anything before the enquiry proceeds?” Rose could see him calculating all options and possible scenarios before he answered.

“Only that this whole thing is a farce. I am Lord President of Gallifrey. You can't put me on trial.” The Doctor arose from his seat and headed towards the door as if to dismiss himself from the whole proceeding.

Rose nearly laughed at him trying to claim the position that he ran from like the plague. “Doctor, since you wilfully neglected the responsibility of your great office, you were deposed.”

“Oh. Is that legal?” he asked, searching for a loophole.

“Perfectly. But we won't hold it against you.” Rose smiled a little at the Doctor now. “Quite the contrary in fact. And to see that your interests are fully protected, I propose to appoint a court defender to represent you.” She knew full well that he would never allow anyone else to speak for him, but it was almost fun to tease that he might need it.

“Ah, oh, er, thank you, but no thank you. I have been through several such enquiries before. I think it would be easier if I speak for myself.” The Doctor set himself back in his assigned seat and seemed to prepare himself for the upcoming battle.

“The court notes the Doctor refuses the services of a court defender. Proceed, Valeyard.” Rose took some notes on the pages in front of her.

“Inquisitor, I am not proposing to waste the time of the court by dwelling in detail on the activities of the accused.” The Valeyard stated haughtily.

“Good,” the Doctor interrupted with a sulk.

“Instead, I intend to adumbrate two typical instances from separate epistopic interfaces of the spectrum. These examples of the criminal behaviour of the accused are fully recorded in the Matrix, the repository of all knowledge.” The Valeyard was amused to hear his wife's mental laughter at his little speech.

~'Playing with your thesaurus again, love?'~ Rose giggled

“I should like to begin with the Doctor's involvement in the affairs of Ravalox, a planet within the Stellian galaxy.” the Valeyard activated the screen that would display the recordings stored in the Matrix.

~'You love it. All I'm missing are my brainy specs.'~ The Valeyard mentally smirked at her.

On the screen, the Doctor and Peri were walking through a forested area under a rainbow umbrella. The Doctor explained to her that Ravalox had the same mass, angle of tilt and period of rotation as Earth, but had supposedly been destroyed by a fireball five centuries before. As they explored the planet that had not been destroyed as reported, the screen showed two men named Glitz and Dibber as they tried to shoot the Doctor and Peri. They apparently thought the unsuspecting duo was after whatever it was they were hoping to steal and sell.

Suddenly, Rose felt a little mental knock from the Doctor. She debated the wisdom of speaking with him privately, but she knew that he wouldn't let it go, so it was best to acknowledge it and encourage him to pay attention. She made the connection with him as the scene above them continued.

~'I can feel you!'~ The Doctor's mental voice sounded awed.

~'Well, I should hope so, Doctor.'~ Rose directed her thoughts towards the Doctor that wasn't yet her husband.

~'Are you here to ensure a positive outcome? I don't even know your name, yet.'~

~'You know perfectly well that I cannot tell you any of that. All I can say is that there are deeper issues involved here. Pay close attention and trust me.'~ Rose sent him a psychic hug and closed off the connection for now.

Directing her thoughts back towards her husband, Rose informed him of the conversation, ~'He can hear me if I open a connection with him. I didn't tell him much, just to pay attention and look for the deeper issues. I hope that was alright?'~

~'That is interesting. I don't remember that at all, of course. Don't worry, love, it IS important that he focuses on the facts that are presented if he is going to suss out this problem. He can't afford to be distracted by the fact that you are here.'~ The Valeyard sent her the feelings of a warm caress, ~'You are doing brilliantly, Rose, just keep going as you have been.'~

They watched the screen as Glitz and Dibber followed some natives to their village while the Doctor and Peri discovered that Ravalox was actually Earth and they were in a London Underground station. 

Suddenly, the Doctor interrupted, “Why do I have to sit here watching Peri getting upset, while two unsavoury adventurers bully a bunch of natives?”

“The reason will be made clear shortly, Doctor.” The Valeyard practically rolled his eyes at his past self's impatience. There was a fair amount of important information in that segment, even if it wasn't exactly in relation to the charges against him.

“As a matter of interest, where is Peri?” The Doctor looked around and Rose could feel his sudden worry for his missing companion.

“Where you left her,” the Valeyard stated simply.

“Where's that?”

“You don't remember? Obviously a side effect of being taken out of time.” the Valeyard knew that it was actually an intentional act so that they could get through presenting these stories without the Doctor insisting on leaving to rescue her or spending the whole time worrying instead of paying attention. He knew that the CIA had sent a team to help save her from Crozier. “The amnesia should soon pass.”

“Shall we continue?” Rose asked as she sorted through the clues herself. Her husband had given her a summary of events, but she loved solving mysteries, so pulling all the puzzle pieces together was interesting even if she did know the outcome already.

“Well, can't we just have the edited highlights?” The Doctor sounded bored.

The scene continued in the Underground station with the Doctor comforting Peri and then going on to investigate as Peri decided to wait outside.

~'Not the toughest of girls, is she?'~ Rose thought to her husband.

~'Oh, don't be too hard on her. She had some pretty tough adventures with me. To be honest, I'm surprised she stayed after the way I treated her when I regenerated.'~ The Valeyard sent her the memory of almost strangling her to death in his manic state after giving her the last of the poison antidote.

~'Alright, I'll play nice with the other companions.'~ Rose answered, sending him a mental cuddle. She had always tried to avoid playing the damsel in distress.

They watched as Glitz tried to fool Katryca, the queen of the village, into letting him destroy the black light converter which they believed was their great totem. There was some kind of robot in the underground city that the workers called 'Immortal' and it ordered that the extra 'work unit' that showed up on the sensors must be removed.Then they saw the Doctor argue with one of the workers in the underground city he had discovered. His name was Balazar and the Doctor was offended when he called him 'old one' and the Time Lord pointed out that he was ONLY 900 years old.

~'Hang on! 900!! You told me you were 900 when we met how many regenerations later?'~

~'Yes, well... it all depends on which planet's years you're measuring by, doesn't it?'~ The Valeyard could feel that she wasn't really angry, just frustrated that he was hiding something from her.

~'Ok, so what planet were you calculating by when you told Balazar you were 900? And what planet were you calculating by when you told ME 900?'~

~'Well, Balazar was quite ignorant. Not like you. So, I used Earth years because he wouldn't believe anything else. But you were so accepting of my being an alien and you are so smart and brave and strong...'~

~'Yeah, you can kiss my bum once we get out of here. Now what planet's 900 years are you now?'~

~'Gallifrey's... '~ The answer was almost a whisper. Rose sent him a little caress of apology for pushing so hard. The Valeyard tucked his feelings of remorse regarding his home planet away and prepared for the further acting to come. 

Balazar tried to impress the Doctor with his knowledge of all three books that they possessed and informed him that their city was called Marb Station and their world was called UK Habitat. The video also showed Peri being brought to the above ground village by the natives while the Doctor was busy underground. Just as the underground dwellers decided that the Doctor was a water thief and a liar, they began stoning the Doctor on the screen, he tried to block the stones with his umbrella and the Valeyard stopped the playback.

“Oh! Why'd you stop it at the best bit? I was rather enjoying that.” The Doctor was acting like he was attending a night at the movies.

“I'm sure you were,” the Valeyard answered dryly.

“Clever, eh? That trick with the umbrella.”

“Most ingenious, my dear Doctor,” he replied, mocking him now.

“Oh, I always like to do the unexpected. Takes people by surprise.” The Doctor was obviously rather proud of himself.

“Hear how the Doctor takes pride in his interference. Hear how he boasts. This is not the reaction of a responsible Time Lord.”

“We are all aware of that, Valeyard. What is the point you are trying to make?” Rose asked, knowing full well that her husband had no intention of ever fitting the mould of a responsible Time Lord.

“These proceedings started as a mere enquiry into the Doctor's activities. I'm suggesting now that it becomes a trial. And if he is found guilty, I strongly suggest the termination of his life!” The Valeyard pulled out all the stops on that part. All that was missing was the evil laughter and perhaps the stroking of a dark moustache.


	21. Flirt For Your Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I swear I'm not making it up. Watch the episodes and the Doctor was totally flirting with the Inquisitor.

Chapter Twenty-One – Flirt for your Life 

“So, you want me dead, eh?” The Doctor was used to having his life threatened and he was undeniably about to change tactics based on this new information.

“What the Valeyard wants and what the court decides, are two entirely different things, Doctor,” Rose reassured him.

“Thank you, my lady.” Clearly he was putting a lot of trust in her now.

“Proceed Valeyard.” Rose took a moment to send feelings of reassurance to the Doctor that wasn't yet her husband.

On the screen, there were some arguments over whether to kill him or not and the 'Immortal' ordered him brought to his castle instead. Peri was put into prison in the village as was the usual experience for companions in Rose's experience. While she waited with Glitz and Dibber, she learned that they wanted to destroy the underground city to get something that would turn them a large profit. When they were brought back before Katryca, she ordered the execution of Glitz. The Doctor was brought to meet the 'Immortal' robot. Where he discovered that the robot had work he wanted the Doctor to do for him.

As this rather long bit of the story went on, Rose considered the differences in the minds of the past and present Doctors. Her own husband's mind was refreshing and warm and snuggly. This other Doctor didn't know her. She felt his curiosity, wonder at his future and a desire to have someone who seemed to understand him enough to want that kind of connection. She liked being a mystery to him. He had always had the upper hand in their relationship (it seemed to her anyway). She had held back and waited for him to make the first move as if she didn't have the right. Now, she was ahead of him. It was fun to be in control.

The story on the screen was telling a lot about the mystery that the Doctor needed to solve, but had very little to do with proving his guilt with regard to the charges. She could also see that the Doctor was losing focus and needed a bit of a nudge back to the issues being presented.

“Is this relevant testimony, Valeyard? We seem to be straying from the point.” Rose pointed out as she stopped the playback.

“Circumstantially germane, my lady, in that it is part of the prosecution's case that the Doctor introduces a disruptive and corrupting influence wherever he goes,” the Valeyard answered.

“Sheer poppycock!” Interrupted the Doctor.

“If the Doctor had not visited Ravalox, then the whole chain of events we are witnessing would not have been set in motion.” The Valeyard knew full well that Glitz and Dibber would have destroyed the black light converter whether he was there or not and set off the explosion that he prevented. But he needed to put on the front of the 'responsible Time Lord' for this and use their usual arguments.

“Well, how can the Boatyard make that claim? What might or might not have happened is entirely speculative,” the Doctor said acerbically.

“That is for me to decide, Doctor. And may I remind you, the charge you face is grave indeed.” This small warning from Rose, she hoped would remind him to pay closer attention to what was happening.

“Oh, I only have to look at the Graveyard to see that, ma'am.” The Doctor, as usual, was hiding his tension with humour by mocking the Valeyard.

“Your puerile attempts at flippancy are not appreciated in this court, Doctor. Proceed Valeyard.” Rose wondered if he could take anything seriously, but knew in her heart that he really DID take it all very seriously even if he hid it remarkably well.

The scenes from the Matrix continued, showing the robot that they discovered was named Drathro, arguing with the Doctor regarding his black light energy system. It was failing and he wanted the Doctor to fix it or die. 

The next interruption came from the Doctor himself, “I protest!”

“What now?” Rose sighed. Oops, was that too human a response?

“Yes, now!”

“I meant, what are you protesting about this time?” Rose clarified.

“I am charged with interfering, yet it's blatantly obvious to a blind speelsnape that I am working under duress.” The Doctor often ended up helping whether he wanted to or not when people started threatening him like that.

“That does seem a valid point. What is the relevance of your presentation?” Rose was a little worried that she might not be convincing enough in her role if she let this go, but she knew that her husband had chosen all of this material carefully to make sure all the facts were presented.

“If the accused hadn't interrupted, my lady, the point I wish to make would have become obvious.” The Valeyard knew that this video didn't really prove anything with regard to the charges, but his past self needed to have these clues put in front of him to uncover the conspiracy.

“Oh, then I apologize for my outburst. As your ladyship is aware, I am unfamiliar, unlike the Valeyard, with court procedure.” The Doctor said endearingly.

“The court accepts your apology, Doctor. Proceed.” Rose had to bite her lip to keep from laughing out loud.

She thought to her husband, ~'Is he flirting with me? Oh my god!'~

~'Hmmm... Well, two can play at that game, love.'~ He sent back to her.

The screen, once again, showed Peri, Glitz and Dibber in the village watching as the natives built a pyre to kill Glitz. The people in the court room paid close attention as the Doctor tried to fix the black light system but needed to reach the converter above ground. Drathro would not let him leave, however, and he was forced to trick Drathro and the robot's human assistants in order to escape. Peri and Glitz ran from the village towards the underground tunnels while Dibber took an explosive towards the black light converter. The Doctor ran straight into the guards outside but they seemed to be switching sides when one of them asked him to take Balazar with him. Suddenly the Valeyard interrupted the evidence from the Matrix.

“Stop!” He shouted. “This is another prime example of the Doctor's interference. You will note that he was in a position to free himself of the situation, yet deliberately chose not to.”

“I was trying to help,” the Doctor said as if speaking to a particularly slow child. “Surely even a blockhead like you can see that.”

“I think we should reserve judgement until the end of the sequence,” Rose scolded.

“I agree, my lady,” the Doctor used such a tone with her that there was no longer any doubt that he was flirting. The Valeyard glared at him for daring to flirt with his wife.

As the Matrix presentation continued, the Doctor and Balazar ran into Peri and Glitz at the entrance to the underground city. The Doctor was being chased by a security robot and Glitz was being chased by the villagers and at this point, they ended up all caught between hostiles on both sides. The villagers shot the robot, then took them all back to the village as prisoners. It all, however, seemed a bit gratuitous to Rose.

“Valeyard, are these unpleasant scenes necessary to your case? I find primitive physical violence distressing,” Rose said, trying to play the prim and proper bureaucrat.

“So do I, ma'am. Especially when I'm on the receiving end,” the Doctor replied, clearly still trying to agree with just about everything she said.

“I too find it repugnant to witness, my lady, but the Doctor has a well-known predilection for violence.” The Valeyard added privately to Rose, ~'And you know you love it.'~

The Doctor didn't like the implications at all, “That is a foul slur!”

“Do not interrupt, Doctor,” Rose chastised.

“I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm not given to violence as the Valeyard here suggests. Occasionally, I might have to resort to a modicum of force...”

Rose forcefully interrupted him, “Please be silent.”

“...as a means of self defence.” The Doctor never did do well with the idea of not talking.

“Doctor,” Rose explained, “ you will have ample opportunity to put your case at a later point.”

“But..” the Doctor gave her such a look of puppy dog eyes, she could barely stand it.

“Valeyard, I would appreciate it if these brutal and repetitious scenes are reduced to a minimum.” Rose encouraged him to get this thing moving so that they could go somewhere they wouldn't be risking a paradox.

“My lady, it is certainly not my wish to cause you any unnecessary affront, but the accused's offences are such that a certain amount of graphic detail is unavoidable,” the Valeyard concluded.

“Very well. Continue.”

The Valeyard could feel Rose's frustration. She wasn't angry really, so what was it?

~'Rose, my love, what's wrong?'~ Her husband asked.

~'It's nothing really. I guess I'm just feeling impatient... worried? The longer we are here with the past you, the more I worry about paradoxes and stuff.'~

~'Oh, Rose, this is just the beginning. This trial is going to be very long. I promise you that this is all going exactly as I remember it. We will NOT cause a paradox. I will NOT lose you, my love. After this adventure is completed, there will be another presented by me and then a recess.'~ He sent his wife a psychic kiss as the Doctor on the screen above them argued with Katryca about the fact that he needed to repair the destroyed black light converter.

The Matrix display showed the discussion between the Doctor, Glitz, Dibber, and Peri while they were trapped in the prison again. They learned that Glitz and Dibber were from a planet in the constellation of Andromeda and that they were there for business purposes. When the security robot that was chasing them earlier broke through the wall, Glitz and Dibber dragged Peri with them as they ran away, leaving the Doctor to deal with the robot alone. It knocked him unconscious and tied him to itself for transport.

Rose tried to get her emotions under control. She knew the Doctor might be able to sense her feelings and while he might not know the reasons behind them, she didn't want to distract him with it either. If she was worried when she was supposed to be in charge of all of this, then he would likely worry as well. But worry wasn't what she was feeling from him right now. Instead she felt rising suspicion?

The Doctor interrupted the discussion that was happening between Drathro and his assistants about how the above world was not consumed in fire. “All this is irrelevant and hypothetical!”

“Background testimony,” answered the Valeyard.

“What possible value does the Farmyard here think there is in listening to some half-incapacitated robot and a couple of diminutive nit-wits who might as well be robots?” The Doctor was being especially insulting, which generally meant that he was stressed.

“You're allowing your disrespect to show again, Doctor,” Rose said. At least he wasn't insulting entire species yet. Or maybe that was just the Doctors that she knew.

“I'm sorry, ma'am, but the question still stands,” he sounded like he was tired of having to point out the obvious that everyone else had clearly missed.

Rose wasn't quite sure what question he was referring to, “As prosecutor, the Valeyard has the right to include any evidence he considers to be relevant. Provided he can justify its inclusion.”

“But any record relating to persons not in my presence must be sheer conjecture,” the Doctor said with that 'dribbled on your shirt' tone of voice.

The Valeyard knew what he was referring to of course, he was the one to set up the equipment. “The accused is clearly ignorant of the latest methods of surveillance, my lady.” ~'Remember the thing I installed in his TARDIS, Rose?'~

“This evidence is taken from the Matrix. A knowledge bank fed constantly by the experiences of all Time Lords, wherever they may be,” Rose quoted the information she read about the Matrix.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, ma'am. I know that. My whole point is that I'm not,” the Doctor said matter of factly.

“Not what?”

“Not part of the scenes being shown by the Scrapyard here. I'm sorry, Valeyard, force of habit. I apologize.” The Doctor finally made his point clear.

“Doctor, the experience of third parties can also be monitored and accessed if needed, as long as they are in the collection range of a TARDIS,” the Valeyard provided the missing information.

“Oh,” this seemed to stop the Doctor's train of thought completely. “But my TARDIS is an old model. Are you telling me it's been bugged without my knowledge?”

“Bugged?” asked Rose.

The Valeyard appreciated her insistence on this clarification for the other Time Lords in the room. “It is a reference apparently to the new surveillance system, my lady. The expression derives from an Earth term.”

“I see. I think we are wasting time on an unimportant issue. Continue with the evidence, Valeyard.” ~'I'll reassure him that it was necessary and not malicious, love'~ Rose added to her husband.

As the playback resumed, Rose opened her connection to the Doctor again, ~'Don't worry about the bug. We put it there so that this information would be available today. There are important things being shown with this, please trust me and trust your future self. You can feel that I'm not lying to you, Doctor.'~

~'You visited my TARDIS? When was this?'~

~'Not that it's important, but it was while you were dealing with the Rani. I'm only telling you that the surveillance was put there by us because I know you won't drop the issue without some kind of explanation. Now, there is a bigger mystery happening in this evidence and you need to concentrate to solve it. Be the Doctor that I know and love and save the day again.'~ Rose could feel his surprise when she said the word 'love' and wondered what he thought she felt for him if she had created such a deep bond with him.

~'Alright, I promise. Please tell me your name, I can't bear not knowing.'~

~'I suppose we won't risk a paradox by you knowing since you'll have to forget this part of our meeting anyway. My name is Rose.'~ She felt his surprise at that, ~'Yes, I know, it isn't a Time Lord name. That mystery is for later, love.'~ At that, Rose closed the connection and glanced at him to indicate that he needed to pay attention to the proceedings.

On the screen, the security robot carried the Doctor back towards Drathro, when the villagers stopped it and shot at it again. Thinking that this robot was the 'Immortal,' Queen Katryca then led her people to Drathro's castle where they would take all of his secrets. Glitz and Dibber left while Peri freed the Doctor from where he was tied. As he woke up, he sounded rather like his fourth self talking to Sarah Jane. Once the Doctor got his bearings, they chased after the villagers. There was a lot going on as the countdown towards a black light explosion drew nearer, but just as Glitz seemed about to impart some important information regarding what they were after, there was a loud bleeping sound cutting off his words.

The Valeyard spoke up in explanation, “The remainder of that evidence has been excised, my lady.”

“Excised? Why?” That ought to draw the Doctor's attention, Rose thought.

“By order of the High Council,” the Valeyard replied.

“This is a judicial enquiry appointed by the High Council but independently conducted. It is MY duty, Valeyard, to decide what evidence is relevant.”

“Of course, my lady. The High Council simply felt that certain areas of testimony should not be revealed,” he continued to point out who was concealing this information.

“Why not?” she demanded.

The Valeyard was glad they had discussed how important it was that this particular information was presented thoroughly, “Against the public interest, my lady.”

Rose put on her best haughty air, “I cannot conduct a proper and searching enquiry without full access to the evidence.”

“Naturally, Inquisitor, their honours would be quite prepared to let you consider the full record in camera,” her husband responded.

“And I think that would be unfair to the defendant. Do you wish to lodge an official objection at this stage, Doctor?” Rose knew this argument would draw his attention to the importance of this clue.

“Well, I... er. No, ma'am. No, let the Valeyard here continue. Give him enough rope to hang himself, eh?” The Doctor seemed content to be aware of the existence of this secret for now.

“As you wish. Proceed.”

They watched as Katryca led her people to their doom and the Doctor hurried towards saving the universe, when Rose stopped the video once more.

The Doctor seemed remarkably relaxed. Perhaps because he knew that this evidence against him was about to show how he had saved everyone again. “I didn't appear to be hurrying there, did I? But that deceptively easy gait of mine covers the ground at amazing speed.”

Rose knew this cocky attitude all too well, “I did not interrupt the evidence to commend you on your athleticism, Doctor.”

“Oh, well.. you can if you like. All compliments gratefully accepted,” he flirted outrageously.

Rose felt the need to stop this behaviour before her husband abandoned the act and punched his former self, “And may I remind you yet again that this is a serious trial.”

“It is NOT serious! It's a farce! A farrago of trumped up charges.”

“You will have the opportunity in due course to rebut any or all of the Valeyard's charges,” Rose pointed out.

“Oh, the Valeyard's charges. I always thought Valeyard meant learned court prosecutor,” the Doctor said accusingly.

“And so it does,” he stated.

“Not in your case, sir. Your points of law are spurious, you evidence weak, verging on the irrelevant, and your reasoning quite unsound. In fact, your point of view belongs in quite another place. Perhaps the mantle of Valeyard was a mistake. I would therefore suggest that you change it for the garment of quite another sort of yard,” the Doctor prodded. “That of the knacker's yard. For your argument is as tired and worn out as the poor, unfortunate creatures that end up there.”

“You will apologize at once!” Rose insisted.

“For telling the truth? Never!”

The Valeyard remained calm despite the taunting he had just received, “The Doctor is well known for these childish outbursts. I do not find the ramblings of an immature mind offensive.”

“Immature?!” The Doctor sounded appalled by that particular insult.

“It is that particular state of mind that has made it necessary for you to be brought before this court.”

“Immature? I was on Ravalox trying to avert a catastrophe. The deaths of several hundred innocent people! Surely not even in the eyes of the Time Lords can that be deemed either immature or a crime.” The Doctor was practically pouting now, all that was missing was a, 'so there!'

“The crime was in being there, Doctor! Your immaturity was in not realizing you had broken a cardinal law of the Time Lords. Your presence initiated the whole chain of events that we have witnessed,” the Valeyard rebutted.

“Thank you, Valeyard. It was that point about the relevance of the testimony that I had intended to raise,” Rose sighed as she was finally able to say why she had paused things to begin with.

“My pleasure, Inquisitor.”

“Oh, this is ridiculous,” the Doctor retorted.

“May we continue? I tire of this empty banter.” Honestly, keeping both versions of her husband under control was like herding cats.

“Of course, my lady,” her husband said sweetly.

The playback continued, and the Doctor tried to find a way into Drathro's castle. Glitz and Dibber discussed how they were going to find the secrets once they had destroyed Drathro. They said that the Sleepers had found a way into something, but the question of what that might be was covered over with the same loud beeping noise as before. Obviously, they had again run across information that the High Council was concealing.

“What is going on?” the Doctor asked.

“That question had formed in my mind, Valeyard,” Rose added.

“The information extracted is for your eyes and ears only, my lady.”

“Something else that is not in the public interest to reveal?” Rose questioned accusingly.

“Exactly, my lady,” the Valeyard responded, proud of her performance today.

“Well, this is a charade. If that information was known to those two rogues, what possible reason can there be for concealing it from this court?” The point made by the Doctor was extremely accurate.

“This trial is concerned only with your actions, Doctor, and their consequences. Nothing else. Wider issues, if there are any, are not within our terms of reference,” the Valeyard replied, knowing full well that the best way to push himself into action was to tell him that it was none of his business.

“Perhaps that is something I should decide, Valeyard,” Rose stated to reassert her authority in the court room.

“Of course, my lady, but my own instructions were to peruse only matters pertinent to the central issue.”

“That is accepted. However, I should like to see the last sequence again,” Rose requested.

“Yes,” the Doctor said as he paid extra close attention to the points being presented.

Glitz pointed out that the Sleepers had found a way into the unnamed biggest net of information in the universe and were stealing information. The Doctor argued values with the robot, while Peri, Glitz and Dibber found a way into Drathro's castle to help. In the end, Glitz and Dibber tried to get away with the box of secrets, but they were destroyed along with Drathro when the black light system was shut down. 

They all saved the day of course and the Doctor in the court room looked just as smug as the one on the screen, “Well, that's one up to me, I think. There can't be many people who can literally claim to have saved the entire universe. Well, if that's all the muck you can rake up.” He arose as if ready to move on to his next adventure and the case was closed.

“Sit down,” the Valeyard interrupted. “Smugness does not become you, Doctor.”

“That,” he replied, “is an irrelevant observation. I think it's now my turn to present the case for the defence.” 

“In due course,” said Rose.

The Doctor pouted at that. This Doctor seemed rather good at pouting. “Well, that's not fair. Look, I wish it put on record that my involvement in the affairs of that planet resulted in the freedom of Drathro's underground slaves.”

“That has been noted,” Rose said as she scribbled more notes on the papers in front of her. The papers were honestly more filled with doodles than anything, but it looked important to be taking notes.

“And despite the fact that evidence has been withheld, my presence there was most specifically requested.”

“You showed little reluctance in complying with the request,” the Valeyard pointed out. He knew this next argument would likely upset his wife. He was going to be rather self-deprecating with this accusation, but it was the best point to bring up as they led into the next story to be presented.

“Well, lives were at stake,” defended the Doctor. Lives were always at stake.

“Lives were lost, and because of your meddling, Doctor.”

“I deny that. Without my help, an entire civilization might have been wiped out.”

“Without your interference it might have involved less sacrifice of human life!” The Valeyard was working up a head of steam in this argument with himself, as he often did in making the same argument in his own mind over and over again.

“That was a risk I had to take,” the defendant answered. It was what he perceived to be his duty to the universe.

“Risk! Risk! Hear how the Doctor condemns himself by his own words,” the prosecutor shouted.

Rose needed to get between them in their arguing again, “Gentlemen! Doctor, perhaps you should heed the Valeyard. May I suggest that for the time being you have said enough.”

“Said enough? Said enough? I have a great deal more to say,” as the Doctor always did.

“Be silent, Doctor,” warned Rose.

The Doctor was never one to be silenced by anyone. “I wish to demonstrate...”

“You will have your turn when the Valeyard has finished his presentation.” Rose knew there was more information that her husband had to pass along to the Doctor. They would have less control over what scenes were presented once the Doctor was allowed to choose his own adventures to present in his defence.

“Thank you, Inquisitor,” the Valeyard acknowledged.

“Well, if the rest of his presentation is as riveting as the first little epic, wake me when it's finished,” the Doctor sounded bored.

“Finished? I've barely started.” The Valeyard sneered at him.

It was obvious that the Doctor was getting tired of this, “Well, for nothing more than your future in the legal profession, I only hope your evidence gets a little better.”

“Oh yes, Doctor, much better. The most damning is still to come. And when I have finished, this court will demand your life.” The Valeyard couldn't resist directing a menacing laugh towards his wife and heard her mentally giggle in response.


	22. Slugs and Warlords

Chapter Twenty-Two – Slugs and Warlords

“Members of the court, we have just witnessed a typical glorious escapade of the Doctor,” the Valeyard continued.

The Doctor seemed to have decided a while ago that flirting with the woman that it seemed would one day be his wife was a good idea in this situation, “Madam! I ask that the court protect me from the abuse of the Brickyard here.”

“How pathetic and juvenile are your attempts at humour.”

“Gentlemen, may I remind you this is a court of law, not a debating society for maladjusted, psychotic sociopaths,” Rose chastised. “You will both conduct yourselves in an orderly manner and show proper respect for the judicial procedure. I hope I make myself very clear.”

Rose was perfecting her regal Time Lady act now and both men acknowledged her chastisement with a bow.

She felt that the Doctor, however, needed just a little more of it, “And Doctor, the prosecuting counsel's title is the Valeyard. Not the brickyard, backyard, knacker's yard or any other kind of yard. Again, do I make myself clear?”

“Piercingly and irrefutably so, madam.”

“Proceed,” Rose directed to the Valeyard.

“As I was saying, we have just witnessed a sequence in the Doctor's history which illustrated perfectly his almost gleeful pleasure in interfering in the development of alien life forms.”

“I object!” the Doctor interrupted.

“Sit down and shut up!” Rose was reaching the end of her rope in keeping these two under control. Honestly, they would never get this stupid trial finished so they could just find the needed information to save her husband's life.

The Valeyard could see Rose's frustration and decided that it was time to remind her of the pleasant time they had on their picnic at Asgard, “Thank you, Sagacity.”

The Doctor was incredulous, “Sagacity? You sycophant! Since when has that been a form of address used in a Gallifreyan court of law?” He seemed genuinely confused. Which was odd because he had been acting just as much the sycophant recently.

“I am simply showing respect to our learned Inquisitor,” answered the Valeyard with a smirk. He added to Rose, ~'And flirting with MY wife.'~

Rose almost flirted back, “An attitude I much approve.”

“Well, you would, wouldn't you?” The Doctor pouted, “Sagacity indeed.”

“Doctor!” Rose scolded. Then redirected her attention to the Valeyard, “Continue.”

“I should now like to present the Doctor's next frightening adventure. In fact, the one in which he was engaged when removed from time and brought to this court.”

The Doctor, behaving like a child who had been sent to the corner, raised his hand.

“Doctor?” Rose asked.

“What about the box?” He was focusing on the right clues at least.

“The box?” Rose said, feigning ignorance.

“And the fact that Earth was two light years away from its original position?” The Doctor pointed out. He definitely seemed to be aware of what the major issues were that he was meant to look for.

“That is not relevant to this segment of evidence,” answered the Valeyard.

“It was relevant enough to be bleeped from the Matrix record.” The Doctor knew that the entire private conversation between Glitz and Dibber could have been omitted from being shown at all and not affected the so called 'evidence' one whit. It was shown with the big bleeped out section to get his attention he was sure. He just couldn't figure out why the prosecution seemed to be pointing him towards this stuff to begin with. It was all very confusing. And why was Rose here?

“The Valeyard is quite right. That is a matter for the High Council to adjudicate upon. It is not the business of this trial,” Rose agreed. She could see on the Doctor's face that he was starting to put together some of the pieces of the puzzle they were helping to lay out for him. She sent him a silent feeling of encouragement to let him know that he was on the right track.

“If we may see from the Doctor's arrival on the planet Thoros Beta. Twenty fourth century, last quarter, fourth year, seventh month, third day.” The Valeyard also knew that the Doctor was starting to figure things out. There was still a long way to go, however, and the end of this adventure would have him in absolute shock.

The display began by showing Peri and the Doctor exiting the TARDIS into the water of a pink sea. She complained a bit, but eventually waded out into the water with him.

“Are you really offering this inconsequential silliness as evidence?” The Doctor asked.

“The Doctor has a point. Surely we could join this segment at a more relevant place?” Rose was thinking of some similar trips with the Doctor where they often began their adventures with silly banter as they exited the TARDIS.

“My apologies for wasting the court's time, Sagacity.” The Valeyard restarted the playback at a point where they were discussing where they had received information that directed them to this planet to investigate. When Peri asked why they needed to get involved, the Doctor said that whenever an advanced culture was manipulating a less developed civilization, they must be stopped and who else was there to stop it?

The Valeyard interrupted the scene, “Who else is there? Your very words condemn you, Doctor. Show your arrogance.”

“Sorry?” the Doctor asked, genuinely confused.

“You feel only you have the right to meddle. Anyone else with that ambition, according to you, should be stopped.”

“Well, you'll soon discover, I made the right decision.”

As they watched the next segment, Rose took a moment to address her husband, ~'Is this going to be a presentation of you being self-deprecating? You know full well that you help millions of people all over the universe and we are all better off because of your actions.'~

~'You knew this trial would be about me attacking myself, love. What better way than using the facts that I attack myself with everyday?'~ The Valeyard knew this would bother her, it was one of the few arguments that they continually had.

On the screen, the Doctor and Peri investigated a machine that was controlling the tides and were attacked by a large alien. As the Doctor wrestled with it, the weapon he had been holding as evidence of trouble on this planet to begin with, accidentally fired and killed the monster.

The Valeyard briefly stopped the video, “Another death, Doctor?”

“The CD phaser discharged accidentally. Rerun the struggle, see for yourselves,” the Doctor defended himself.

“No need. There are clearer examples of your guilt to come,” he said as he restarted the display.

The display showed several guards as they arrived at the alarm regarding intruders and they were arrested for killing the alien the guards called the Raak. One guard asked if he was with Crozier and the Doctor readily agreed. They were taken to see Crozier in the laboratory to confirm his statement. While they waited outside the laboratory, the Doctor and Peri managed to escape from the guards, but found themselves face to face with a man that had been half turned into a dog.

As Rose watched the following scenes, she saw Peri repeatedly ask to leave, especially when she saw the arrival of a short, green slug-like alien named Sil whom she had met before when he tried to turn her into a bird. She wondered why in the world Peri travelled with the Doctor at all if she always wanted to leave before they found out how they could help wherever the TARDIS had brought them. She was nice, smart and her husband told her that she was brave when she needed to be, it was just so opposite from her own approach to their travels. Just as Peri started to panic from seeing Sil, the Valeyard interrupted the evidence again.

“Do you relish danger, Doctor?” He asked.

“Not particularly,” the Doctor replied, unsure of where this was heading.

“Yet you seem to court it so obviously,” the Valeyard pointed out.

“Well, even a nervous Time Lord must appear to act with confidence at all times.”

“At the risk of his companion's life?” The Valeyard could feel the anger start to rise in Rose at where he was taking this now.

“And his own sometimes,” the Doctor replied.

“Already the unfortunate Peri has survived a struggle with the Raak, escaped from the guards, and who, Doctor, was sent to examine the wolf-man?” The Valeyard knew how much danger his friends got into while they were with him. He blamed himself for every bit of it. This Doctor did too, even if he hid it behind bluster.

“Well...”

“Who went into danger first?” 

“She just happened to be nearest,” the Doctor's confidence was faltering a little.

“Your assistant, as usual. Sagacity, I have calculated on a random Matrix sample that the Doctor's companions have been placed in danger twice as often as the Doctor,” he knew that statistic all too well.

“Well, there have been many companions, but only one me,” hiding behind arrogance was a common defence in this particular regeneration.

Rose's irritation at her husband needling the Doctor became very clear, “What is the point you're attempting to make, Valeyard?” She was starting to really dislike this trial for dwelling on the weaknesses of her husband. She didn't see them as weaknesses, but she couldn't make her opinion known without blowing her cover.

“That you remember such information when judgement is considered on taking the Doctor's life and all future regenerations,” her husband replied.

“It is noted,” she said curtly.

Even the Doctor could see her tension building, “This is the most ridiculous, preposterous, travesty of a trial since the so-called witches of Enderhive.”

“Doctor! You have been warned about your behaviour. Let us proceed,” Rose insisted.

This time, as the evidence continued, Rose could feel both Doctors trying to calm her. She told her husband, ~'You knew it would be like this. You knew I wouldn't be able to put in my own opinion of all of this about you.'~

He knew this would upset her, yes, but it was necessary for the charade to work. ~'I'm so sorry, love. If I didn't do this, the High Council would never believe that I was ever on their side.'~

She mentally turned away from her current husband and turned to open the connection with the past Doctor. ~'Thank you for the calming thoughts. I'm not one to hold my tongue when it comes to my opinions, but this isn't the time for defending you.'~

~'Oh, don't worry about me, my ego can take it. I can tell that this topic is really bothering you though.'~

~'You've tried to send me away to safety too many times. When your companions choose to come with you, we generally know the risks or learn them quite quickly. It is our decision to make.'~ Rose explained.

~'I can see why I might do that with you.'~ The Doctor flirted again.

~'Watch out for the flirting, love. Your future self isn't far away and we can't have him revealing himself just to beat you off of me. You get extremely jealous, even of yourself and you know nothing can happen between us yet, you won't even remember this.'~ She giggled in his mind and the Doctor thought it was the most beautiful sound that he had ever heard.

They watched as the issues presented themselves on the screen. Sil was seen with another alien of his kind, named Kiv who seemed to be in charge of the whole situation in the caves. In the laboratory, Crozier was experimenting on a warrior king named Ycarnos. Crozier left the laboratory when he heard from the guards of the Raak's death and the Doctor made his way inside the laboratory in his absence. Sil, Kiv and Crozier revealed that the experiments were so that Crozier could transfer Kiv's brain into a different body because his brain was growing larger than his skull could accommodate. Sil, Crozier and several guards returned to the laboratory and found the Doctor there. The guards that accompanied Crozier tied the Doctor to one of the examination tables and Crozier attached a helmet to his head. The helmet had previously been attached to Ycarnos and no one noticed when he regained consciousness after being released from it. The Doctor was zapped by a machine that made him unresponsive and Ycarnos helped both the Doctor and Peri escape. When the Doctor began to behave erratically, the Doctor in the court room interrupted.

“I don't remember that. I can't recall anything after the power flooded through my brain.”

“That is your defence now, is it? Amnesia. Forgetfulness. This is a tactic, Sagacity, because the Doctor knows what the Matrix will show,” the Valeyard said. He knew full well that again this lapse in his memory was intentional, as well as a few little tweaks to the evidence to make things look worse. They needed to plant the idea that the Matrix could be tampered with now, even if it would become readily apparent when the Doctor tried to present his side of things.

“Is that your defence, Doctor?” Rose asked.

“What?” It seemed like the Doctor was distracted and not completely paying attention to what was happening in the room.

“Amnesia?” Rose clarified.

“No, er..”

“Your mind has cleared from being taken out of time?” Rose too knew that this had been done to him deliberately, but that he would deny any sign of weakness no matter what.

“As far as I can tell.”

“Then, obviously there must be some other reason,” she offered.

“He lies, Sagacity,” the Valeyard interjected.

“I do not!”

“Then you're in for a surprise, aren't you, my dear Doctor? An exceedingly nasty one, if your memory is as fallible as you pretend.”

The Doctor was now riveted to the screen since he didn't remember any of this happening. Ycarnos led them to the area where they processed the slaves because he wanted to steal the weapons stored there. Not knowing his motivations at the time, he was appalled to see himself seemingly betray Peri and Ycarnos as he ran to join Sil on the other side. 

“No! That is not me!” The Doctor shouted and rose from his seat.

“Oh yes, it is,” the Valyard replied. “You were overcome by terror, Doctor. You had interfered yet again and this time, your one aim was to escape unscathed. You. You only. Your friends didn't matter.”

“Never!”

“You realize the Matrix of Time cannot lie,” the Valeyard said pointedly.

“Can't it?” The Doctor asked.

“I suggest you confess to your crimes and throw yourself on the mercy of this court.”

The Doctor seemed lost in thought again, so Rose tried to pull him back to the matter at hand, “Doctor?”

“What? Mercy? No. No, there's something wrong. Of course. Sil was right. It was a ploy to fool the Mentors. Yes, clever old me. Let the Matrix show what it will. A clever ploy. You'll see.” His confidence seemed to be returning even if the evidence was pointing in the other direction from where he would want.

They watched as the Doctor appeared to try and assist Crozier in finding a solution for Kiv. Peri hid herself as a servant to keep from being arrested again and it was shown that Ycarnos was friends with the wolf-man, whose name was Dorf. 

The Doctor revealed Peri's disguise and she was captured thanks to him. He seemed to recall more then, “That's the ploy. I remember now! The ploy was to remove us both from the heart of the Mentor's control section. I gambled that after I'd helped them fix the cerebral transference unit, they might trust me to question Peri alone.”

“To what end?” asked the prosecutor.

“Escape I should imagine,” the Doctor said giving his look that said you dribbled on your shirt again.

“Did the interrogation take place?” came the question from the Inquisitor.

“It did, Sagacity,” the Valeyard answered.

“I should like to see that sequence.”

They watched as the Doctor seemed to torturously question Peri, but it was revealed that they were being watched during this.

“It was never like that!” insisted the Doctor.

“How can you be certain?” asked the Valeyard. “You have no clear memory of the incident. And as we all know, the Matrix never lies.”

“I wonder...”

“May we continue?” Rose requested. “I do grow tired of these constant interruptions.” It felt to her like this day would never end and they weren't even halfway through, if she was figuring it right.

“But it was never like that.” The Doctor protested.

“Enough, Doctor,” Rose said trying to silence him again. “The Matrix does not lie. It cannot lie. You are aware of that fact, so why persist in these silly statements?”

He looked as if he was going to continue arguing the point, but gave up for the moment and sat down.

Relieved, Rose said, “Let us proceed.”

The court room watched as Ycarnos tried to kill the Doctor for betraying him earlier and just as Peri rescued him, the Doctor ran away.

Peri on the screen tried to defend him to Ycarnos by saying that the Doctor wasn't always like that, but the prosecutor in the court room interrupted, “I suggest you always were just like that, my dear Doctor. A toady, a coward, a turncoat! You were afraid that Crozier wanted to transplant the brain of the alien Kiv into your head. You said as much yourself. The thought of that made you panic.”

“I've told you, it was a ploy. I would never want to harm Peri,” he countered.

“But you've also admitted that you have no clear memory of the event.”

“Well, I can recall some of it. Bits of it are beginning to bob back into my mind.” The Doctor still sounded a bit confused.

“Oh really?” The Valeyard said, sounding rather unconvinced. “And does any of your sudden and convenient recall agree with anything that the court has already seen?”

“No! I mean yes, but, but the emphasis is all wrong.”

“And what does that mean?” the Valeyard asked accusingly.

The Doctor sighed as he tried to explain, “The events took place but not quite as we've seen them.”

Rose decided to interject, “It occurs to me, Doctor, that your current mental condition makes it very difficult for you to defend yourself. I would therefore suggest that this court be adjourned.”

He very quickly shot that down, “No! And I refute any implication that I'm barmy.”

“Barmy?” She feigned ignorance of human slang once again.

“A rather imprecise Earth slang word, Sagacity, implying psychiatric instability,” the prosecutor explained.

“Thank you, Valeyard. No one is impugning your sanity, Doctor, merely suggesting your memory is a little faulty.”

“Nevertheless,” the Doctor said more confidently. “I would like this trial to continue.”

“I was also about to suggest that you might change your mind and consider availing yourself of a court defender. A trained legal mind would offer a more constructive and certainly less emotional presentation of your case.” Rose didn't even know if they had anyone ready to fill the role. They all knew that he would never allow anyone else to speak for him, but she was required to offer it as Inquisitor.

“If the Time Lords of Gallifrey want my life, you don't think I'd entrust my defence to one of their august number, do you?” The Doctor knew now that even the one making the final judgement wasn't a Time Lord somehow. Rose was definitely not a name from Gallifrey, but he certainly didn't know how she managed to get placed in that position.

“Very well. Let us continue,” Rose replied and turned her chair back towards the screen.

They watch as Crozier and the Doctor attempted to transplant Kiv's brain into a body similar to his own. It was brown instead of green and had a larger skull. Peri stayed with Ycarnos as they tried to get the rebel force to help create an uprising. Kiv's transfer was not entirely successful as the donor body's consciousness tried to take over his own. Ycarnos lead the rebels as they made their way to a weapons dump for supplies and they were all captured.

“That isn't my fault. You can't blame me for that. I wasn't even there,” the Doctor protested.

The Valeyard used the usual Time Lord excuse, “All that has taken place, you are indirectly responsible for.”

He decided to plead with Rose, even if she had told him to lay off the flirting, “Please, madam. The death of Verne and the other resistance fighters was not my fault.”

“Your presence did influence events,” she admitted. “There's no way that can be denied.”

“Watch, Doctor,” the Valeyard sneered. “See your folly.”

They all watched in horror as they were all shot by the guards.

The Doctor jumped at this, “NO! No, no, no, I won't believe it!”

“You still continue to ignore the truth.”

“I am not responsible for THAT.”

The Valeyard continued, “In your mind, perhaps not. But in reality it is somewhat different, Doctor.”

Sounding rather like a kicked puppy, the Doctor asked quietly, “Is Peri dead?”

With much regret, the Valeyard replied, “No.”

“Then what was the point of showing that last sequence?” Rose asked, impatiently.

“Simply as further evidence of the Doctor's interference.”

“I thought it was somewhat gratuitous,” the Inquisitor warned.

“And highly prejudicial,” the Doctor agreed. “You won't convict me by using shock tactics.”

“I require nothing so crude, my dear Doctor. All that will prove necessary is the truth.”

“Then tell it.”

The Matrix display showed the prisoners as they woke up from being stunned by the weapon and Crozier decided that they needed a new body for Kiv again. He sent the Doctor to find a new host with the warning that if he couldn't find anyone else, he would use Peri. Peri was taken to the laboratory, where Crozier found her to be a very promising candidate. The Doctor freed Ycarnos and Dorf and helped them to free the slaves from a mind control implant. The Doctor was on his way to rescue Peri when he was pulled away from Thoros Beta and to the space station where the trial was now happening.

The Doctor was in shock, “I remember now! Whatever made you take me out of time when you did?! I remember it all. I was on my way to save Peri.”

“Things have gone too far,” Rose answered, as she had been told to reply regarding their intervention. She knew that a team was sent to rescue Peri in his place. “You had released chaos and allowed your companion to take part in an experiment that would affect all future life in the universe.”

“I did try to stop it!”

“But you could not succeed,” she defended their actions. “It was too late, and therefore necessary, by the direct order of the High Council, to prevent the consequence of Crozier's experiment. Watch, Doctor. Watch and listen carefully.”

The CIA had constructed this segment to conceal the rescue of Peri. It would fit better with the usual tactics of the Time Lords to solve such scenarios and would therefore be more believable. In the scene shown, Peri's body now housed the mind of Kiv and Ycarnos broke into the operating room just as everything appeared to freeze.

“They're caught in a time bubble. Everything must be perfect before they drive home their final attack,” Rose explained.

“You're using Ycarnos as an assassin!” The Doctor couldn't believe his eyes.

“It was judged by the High Council as the most acceptable way and Ycarnos will never know that he was used.”

“And so they took it upon themselves to act like second-rate gods,” he sounded both incredulous and disgusted by all of this.

The screen showed Kiv awakening in Peri's body and Ycarnos entering the room to shout, “No!” at the sight of her and fired the phaser at her before the screen went black.

There was a heavy silence hanging in the room for a few moments. Still in shock, the Doctor asked, “You killed Peri?”

“We had to act,” Rose told him. “With the discovery that Crozier had made, the whole course of natural evolution throughout the universe would be affected.”

“But Peri died, Doctor, because you abandoned her. We had to end her life because your negligence had made it impossible for her to live,” the Valeyard concluded.

“Lies,” the Doctor was sure of it. “There's something else going on here. The High Council has no right to order Peri's or anyone else's death.”

Rose tried to calm him, “Please, Doctor.”

“No. I was taken out of time for another reason and I have every intention of finding out what it is.”


	23. The Future Looks Ginger

Chapter Twenty-Three – The Future Looks Ginger

There was a recess in the proceedings after the apparent death of Peri. It gave the Doctor time to think, access the Matrix and prepare his defence. This meant that Rose and the Valeyard could find a chance to meet up privately where no one would see. He made sure there was no surveillance equipment in the room with his sonic screwdriver before they spoke even one word to each other.

As soon as they were sure it was safe, they threw themselves into a desperate embrace. She kissed him passionately and he rubbed her back to help calm her frazzled nerves. He could feel her frustration and stress, but knew things would only get worse once the conspiracy was uncovered and he would have his fake confrontation with his past self. The Valeyard needed to help calm his wife so that she could make it through the trial without breaking down and revealing the whole charade.

“It's ok, love... it's ok,” he said as he rubbed soothing circles on her back.

“Tell me Peri is ok... please, tell me she's ok,” Rose sobbed into his shoulder. She was upset at the footage shown even though she knew it wasn't true. Also, she was feeling the other Doctor's anguish through her link with him and it added to her own pain.

“I haven't heard anything from our CIA contacts yet, but my memories have not changed about being told that she was alright at the end of the trial. Try to relax, love, it will all turn out alright.” The Valeyard could feel her breathing even out as she stopped crying. “You are doing a fantastic job out there, Rose. You've got everyone fooled.”

“I can't wait for this to all be over. Will you need my help searching the Matrix afterward? Can I even get in there to help you?”

“The Doctor is going to present a story in his defence next. Before the trial continues, I need to go into the Matrix and change what will show from what he thinks it will show. That is the way that he discovers that the Matrix is, in fact, not as secure as the Time Lords think it is. It allows for the realization that there was information stolen from there and things can be changed without their knowledge. Once that happens, the Master will make his appearance and reveal who I am (or at least who he thinks I am). A few CIA operatives have been feeding him some information to make him more confident in his assessment of me. When the Doctor discovers this, I will run from the court room and into the Matrix. From there, it is your job to make sure that all of the Time Lords left in the court room see what is happening on the screen. I wasn't in the room then, so I don't know everything that happened there, but our little play needs to keep going.” He held her hands as he explained what she should expect and she met his eyes as she concentrated on knowing the role she needed to play.

“Alright, I can do this. And when it's all over, we'll know how to save you and we can get back to living our forever the way it should be,” she gave him a bit of a watery smile, but he could feel that she was building up her resolve to keep going.

“I have to go now, love. I need to make those changes in the Matrix. You can stay here and relax until it's time to go back.” The Valeyard gave his wife one last loving kiss before leaving.

Rose found her way to the room where some refreshments had been laid out. Making herself a cup of tea, she sat at a small table and collected her thoughts. It was almost over. They would find a way to save her husband's life. If there was anywhere that they could find that information, it would be in the Matrix. She was startled out of her musings by the Doctor who had seated himself across from her.

“Hello,” she said. She had fixed her makeup so that it wasn't obvious that she had been crying, but she knew that he could tell. Her eyes were probably still red and he could feel her emotions too.

“Hello,” he replied. It looked like he was about to speak again when Rose shook her head and stood up. She indicated that he should follow her as she looked around to see if anyone had seen them together. When it looked clear, she led him to the room where she had met with her husband and closed the door.

“It's safe to talk here,” she told him. “At least it was half an hour ago.”

“Why are you here? How are you here?”

“I can't tell you yet. I know you'll forget later anyway, but for the sake of the trial, I can't tell you. All I can say is that when he tells you privately, it is the truth. Everything else is being watched,” Rose was fairly sure that she could trust him with that much explanation right now. “As for how, we stole the Rani's TARDIS to break into this part of the timeline.”

The Doctor smirked at the idea of hijacking her TARDIS. “Alright, I'll accept that you can't tell me much about the future. How about right now? You were very upset earlier, are you alright now?”

“Yes, I'll be fine. There's just so much at stake here and I'm terrified of causing a paradox or something. The last time was horrible,” she shuddered at the thought of reapers coming to destroy both Doctors this time.

“I'm sure it will all work out. With two of me here, what could go wrong?” he teased.

That earned him a smile from Rose. “I know that you'll forget this part until it's safe again once the trial is over, so maybe to distract both of us from the trial for a bit, I can tell you a bit about me? Future you said he was going to explain our little dilemma later anyway and part of that involves me.”

“Alright, I could certainly use a bit of distraction for now.”

“Well,” she began. “I used to be human. I met you when I was 19, in London. You rescued me from the Nestene Consciousness when the shop window dummies came to life in the shop where I was working. We were travelling together for about a year when we ran into a really dangerous situation. You were sure that there was no other solution than a delta wave that would wipe them all out and you along with them. So you tricked me into the TARDIS and sent me home. I couldn't bear the idea of you dying all alone in the future. I managed to open the console and looked into the heart of the TARDIS.” Rose heard him gasp and he took her hand tightly. 

“I bonded with her then,” she continued. “And together we went back to save you. With the time vortex running through me, I destroyed all of the enemies to save you. But my head was burning, so you took the vortex from me and regenerated. We thought that was the end of it, until about five years later, I was shot. Neither of us knew how, but I regenerated then and now I'm a Time Lady.”

The Doctor's mouth was hanging open in shock. “That's...” He seemed to be having trouble getting his brain and his voice to connect properly. “That's incredible.” He continued to stare off into the distance for a few moments.

While he was processing that information, Rose used the opportunity to let her husband know what she had shared with him. ~'The Doctor wanted to talk with me privately.'~

~'Not surprising really. What did you tell him?'~ the Valeyard replied.

~'A brief explanation of how we met, the Game Station and that I regenerated. I hope that's ok? I know you said you were going to explain the situation to him soon and I didn't think knowing this part now would affect how he interacts with you in the court room.'~ Rose was a little worried, but the worst case scenario just meant that the past Doctor would have to start acting along with them sooner than expected. At least she hoped that would be the worst case.

~'That should be fine, love. I'm done in the Matrix and I think we'll all have to get back to the trial soon. I spoke with one of our CIA contacts. Don't tell the Doctor yet, but Peri is fine.'~

~'Oh, thank god! Thank you so much for telling me, love. I've been so worried about her.'~ She sagged with relief and both Doctors could feel a huge weight lift from her shoulders. The Valeyard knew why, but the Doctor could only guess. ~'See you soon, husband.'~

The Doctor was looking at her curiously. “Were you talking with the future me just now? Telepathically, I mean.”

“Yes, he said we'd have to get back to the trial soon.”

“There was something else...” he began.

Rose had to interrupt that train of thought, “Sorry, love. I can't tell you yet, it isn't time. There is so much depending on this. Not just the mystery for you to uncover, but lives as well. Please, take this all very seriously, Doctor.”

“I will, Rose. And thank you.” At that, he squeezed her hand and left to prepare himself for the trial. She was left with her thoughts once more.

Rose made sure no one was watching when she left the room, just in case they had seen the Doctor leave there a few moments ago. She went back to the court room and settled into her place as the other Time Lords filed into their seats behind her. Her husband entered next and nodded to her as he took his place.

The last to arrive was the Doctor and he looked very solemn as he sat down.

Rose broke the silence to get the next part of the trial underway, “We are all aware of your feelings of sorrow, Doctor. Has the recess given you sufficient time to overcome the distress of your bereavement?”

There was a long pause before he answered, “I doubt that there will ever be sufficient time for that, my lady.”

“May we not proceed, my lady?” the Valeyard interjected, “The cavalier manner in which the Doctor permitted his young companion to be destroyed militates against this charade of concern.”

“The Doctor is fighting for his life, Valeyard,” Rose said harshly. “However, I do take your point. Doctor, are you ready to present your evidence?”

His reply was almost too quiet to be heard at first, “Yes.” With a sigh, he continued more loudly, “Yes, I am grateful to you, madam, for according me the same privilege as the Valeyard that allowed me access to the Matrix. My excursion will be into the future.”

“The future?” The Valeyard sounded surprised. “Is it going to be the Doctor's defence that he improves?”

“Precisely.”

“This I must see,” he said with a smirk.

“My submission concerns a crisis which threatens the lives not only of a group of people confined together with no means of escape, but would, if unresolved, threaten every mortal being on the planet Earth.” The Doctor sounded as resolved and serious as Rose had ever seen him with any face.

“Proceed,” she said as the screen lit up to display a red planet with a spaceship in orbit.

“Mogar, a planet on the Perseus arm of the Milky Way. Rich in rare metals. A top priority consignment of these precious metals is being loaded aboard Hyperion Three, an intergalactic liner that ferries between Mogar and Earth. A scheduled flight in the Earth year two thousand nine hundred and eighty six,” the Doctor explained the situation in which the story would take place. “The crew is aboard. The last passengers are reporting in. Many will never complete the journey, for in order to protect a secret hidden on the space liner, one will become a murderer.”

The Matrix display showed the passengers on the ship as they arrived in the common area, then switched to the TARDIS interior where the Doctor was on some sort of stationary bike counting along with a loud ginger girl.

The Valeyard felt a wave of amusement from his wife as they watched them interacting. She couldn't help but ask, ~'Not enough running for your life to keep in shape?'~

He laughed back at her, ~'Never enough for Mel.'~

Everyone watched as the Doctor received a Mayday signal and arrived on board the ship. They were taken to the bridge and it was revealed that the Captain knew the Doctor from a previous adventure. Captain Travers told his security officer to give the Doctor some space and let him solve the mystery for them. The Doctor and Mel watched in horror as the person they thought was the one who sent them the Mayday was apparently killed and it seemed like Mel was more interested in investigating the situation than the Doctor. She believed the mystery was in the hydroponics centre and he told her to go ahead and look if she was so interested in it.

“Hold it!” he interrupted. “Just a minute, I don't remember that.”

“How could you remember,” asked Rose. “These events are in your future.”

“But I reviewed that section earlier when I was preparing my defence. There have been changes. That isn't what happened. The girl, Melanie, her information was important. I wouldn't have just ignored it. Completely uncharacteristic; and the words, misused, didn't even sound like mine.”

The Valeyard took this opportunity to try to discredit the Doctor further, “What isn't completely uncharacteristic is this resort to excuses and subterfuge. To gloss over the death of Peri, the Doctor conveniently presents us with another companion.”

“Hardly a convenience, Valeyard,” Rose responded. “These events are in the Doctor's future. He would not have met the young woman yet.”

“I stand corrected. But my assumption of why he has pursued such an arbitrary course in aborting this tale still remains.”

“Arbitrary course?” asked the Doctor.

“Your assumption, Valeyard?” Rose wondered.

“That she too, is going to her death,” he answered.

“No!” the Doctor fumed, “No, look, I'm sorry, madam, I can't explain, but I have a feeling I am being manipulated. That the evidence is being distorted.”

“Preposterous! Absolutely preposterous!” countered the Valeyard. “Forgive me, Sagacity. The idea the Matrix could lie. No, it is we who are being manipulated.”

“No!” the Doctor tried to interject.

“To obscure the damaging truth.”

“No,” said the Doctor. “This is a total fabrication.”

“The truth, Doctor!” The Valeyard continued, “You sent your companion down the cargo hold into a situation which you described, I quote, 'Can't you sense it, Mel? Evil. There's evil in this place.'”

“No! No, this is all wrong. Every instinct of which I am capable would have made me prevent her.”

“Yet you did not,” he chided.

Rose needed to take control of the court room again, “Doctor, either you continue with your submission or I must consider the evidence for the defence to be concluded.”

The screen, once again, showed the evidence that was submitted to the group watching in the court room. When Mel went down to hydroponics, the guard that showed her around was suddenly electrocuted to death. Mel screamed and two other guards came to see what had happened. One stayed behind with the body while the other took Mel to the bridge.

The Valeyard interrupted the scene, “Another death, Doctor? But for the caprice of chance, the victim would have been your companion, Mel. Your culpability is beyond question.”

“You could have prevented her from going into the cargo hold. Instead, you appear to encourage her,” Rose continued.

The Doctor looked slightly confused by what he was seeing, “When I viewed the Matrix earlier, that isn't what happened.”

“More futile grasping at straws. When the facts tell against you, you cry fraud,” the Valeyard stated haughtily.

“Do you wish to reconsider, Doctor?” Rose asked.

“No, madam,” he responded. “I am being manipulated, but the only way to discover why, and by whom, is to press on.”

On the screen, the Doctor was called to the bridge where he found out about the death that Mel witnessed and that the guard who was left with the body as well as the body itself had both disappeared. The Doctor and Peri found that the giant pods in the hydroponics bay had burst open and whatever was inside them was gone. The Doctor then investigated a guarded isolation room to see what secrets were hidden inside.

As the scenes continued, they saw Travers in conversation with a group of Mogarians. Rose noticed that one of them didn't turn on his translator when speaking and mentally pointed it out to her husband.

The Valeyard stopped the display, “Are we to be subjected to a dissertation on interplanetary politics now, Sagacity?” He made this pause to emphasize the point that she had noticed and sent his feelings of pride at her observation.

“Is that all you think it was?” The Doctor asked.

“Mining rights, Mogarians versus Earthlings. What else would you call that?”

“You are so pathetically intent on incriminating me, you haven't been watching what's going on!”

“My eyes never left the screen,” the prosecutor insisted.

“Well, you may have been selected to prosecute me, Valeyard, but I hope you'll never be chosen to defend me.”

“An occasion that will not arise, Doctor.” The Valeyard felt his wife's amusement at that. “Your lives are forfeit, as I have ably proven.”

“Something vital just happened in that scene and the Valeyard perversely switched our attention to more trivial matters.”

“Then for pity's sake tell us what it was that happened and enjoy your moment of triumph.”

“Triumph?” the Doctor said, “There's no cause for celebration. One of the occupants of that lounge is about to die.”

“Another murder?”

“Yes. And if you had been watching, you would know who was the intended victim.”

“Gentlemen,” Rose interrupted. “Is this case to be resolved with a battle of words or to be conducted via the Matrix?”

The video continued and showed not only the murder, but also revealed the identity of the victim. The security officer on the screen asked the Doctor how he knew that the victim was not a Mogarian and the Valeyard stopped the playback there.

“Yes, how did you know?” he asked. “Have you been editing the Matrix and denying the court all the evidence to which it is entitled?”

“That would be a serious offense, Doctor,” Rose added.

“At the risk of appearing impertinent, Sagacity, I would point out that you, the Valeyard, and everyone here present could have acquired the same knowledge,” the Doctor replied.

“Perhaps we may hear your explanation?”

“With respect, you will not hear it from me.” The Doctor turns the screen back on at the point where the conversation took place which showed one of the Mogarians not turning on his translator before speaking.

“As you saw, the bogus Mogarian did not switch on his translator.”

“Very astute of you, Doctor,” the Valeyard said. “But don't stop there. Let us assume the murdered man was responsible for the mayday call. Perhaps you'll now direct your deductive gifts towards justifying his extraordinary behaviour?”

“Yes,” Rose wondered exactly why he would disguise himself like that. “The investigator, Hallet's methods were very unorthodox.”

“Agreed,” said the Doctor. “And I am indebted to the prosecutor for putting his finger on the nub of my defence. The reason why I could no longer stay on the sidelines.”

The Matrix screen showed the situation on the ship going from bad to worse as the Doctor and Mel continued to investigate what was going on. They first looked at the pods in hydroponics, then they broke into the isolation room they had noticed earlier. When the Doctor was caught breaking protocol by the security officer, however, the Valeyard stopped the display once again.

“Stop the Matrix. I fail to comprehend this evidence. The Doctor is on trial for his life, yet in his defence, he presents us with a situation in which he is deliberately flouting accepted authority.”

“Much of your evidence does seem to contradict your stated aim, Doctor,” Rose admitted. “Are you saying the Matrix is again being falsified?”

“No. And if the Valeyard would exercise the same restraint as I showed during his presentation of his case against me...”

“Ha!” The very idea of this incarnation of the Doctor showing restraint was laughable.

“..And could suppress his bloodlust...”

“Doctor!” Rose chastised, “This court is dedicated to giving you a fair trial. Do not abuse its indulgence.”

The Doctor looked sufficiently repentant, “I apologize.”

Rose acknowledged his apology, “The Matrix, Doctor. I suggest we return to the Hyperion Three.”

Mel was shown investigating further while the Doctor spoke with the captain. Mel discovered a leaf in the room of a passenger that had disappeared. The Matrix further showed a security officer attacked by plant-like creatures called Vervoids. 

The Valeyard heard his wife comment to him, ~'Well, those are probably the most unfortunate looking aliens I've ever seen. They're kind of phallic or something, in a yucky way.'~

~'I tend to agree, although, Zygons are rather nasty looking as well, all red with suckers all over them.'~

The scientists on the screen were arguing with each other over how dangerous their escaped experiments were when Mel confronted one of them about the pods. He denied there was anything in them from the time they were onboard. Mel managed to record a conversation between the Vervoids about killing all animal-kind, but was suddenly knocked out and thrown into a bin on its way to the incinerator. The Doctor rescued her, but the tape she had recorded was gone.

Mel was sent to find out if the scientist Janet Laskey had the tape while the Doctor said he was going to the Hydroponic Centre. The Doctor was shown, however, holding an axe in a destroyed communications room. The Doctor jumped at the incorrect video.

“I didn't do that!”

“Stop the Matrix,” Rose stated.

“Are we to be subjected to more chicanery, Sagacity?” her husband asked.

“It wasn't me in there,” insisted the Doctor.

“Ridiculous,” the prosecutor replied. “We all saw you. You're hardly mistakable in that outfit.”

“I didn't smash the equipment!”

“Are you saying the communications equipment was not sabotaged?” asked the Inquisitor.

“No, no, it had to be to prevent the Commodore getting information from Earth. But I didn't do it,” he defended.

“Then who did?” she asked.

“The murderer.”

“The murderer?” the Valeyard said with a knowing smile. “I think, Inquisitor, the Doctor is telling us more than he realizes.”

“The prosecutor delights in scoring cheap victories, my lady. I swear to you, when I viewed that section earlier, I was nowhere near the Communications room.”

“So, once again, the defendant is accusing the Matrix of being wrong,” said the Valeyard.

“Are you, Doctor?” Rose asked.

“Yes! Yes, I am.”

“If you are questioning its veracity,” Rose pointed out, “is there any point in continuing with the Matrix?”

“But what else have I got? Without evidence to prove my innocence, I'm condemned.”

“And with it, you are also condemned it seems, Doctor. Shall we continue?” the Valeyard said gleefully.

“Doctor?” Rose asked, “Shall we continue? You had, as before, sent your companion into danger.”

The Matrix screen showed one of the scientists as he tried to destroy the ship so that the Vervoids wouldn't escape by aiming it towards a black hole. The Vervoids killed him with poison gas and the Mogarians were able to access the bridge despite the gas due to the masks they already wore in the human atmosphere. They refused to give control back afterward, as they were allied with the security chief to take over the ship. The hijack came to an end when the Mogarians were found dead on the bridge and the Doctor and Mel resumed their investigation into the Vervoids.

The remaining scientists thought that the Vervoids would be the perfect labour force since all they needed was sunlight and water, but they wanted the death of all animal-kind. The captain asked for the Doctor's commitment to help them.

The Doctor stopped the display, “And there you have it. The direct request. I did not meddle. I was presented with an appeal, and not just from anybody, but from the man in whom authority was vested.”

“I accept your argument,” Rose stated. “Nor, Valeyard, can you refute it.”

“Perhaps we should await the outcome of this adventure, my lady,” the Valeyard said enigmatically.

“Doctor, do you wish to continue?” Rose asked.

The playback continued to show the Doctor as he found a way to rapidly increase the Vervoids life cycle and they all turned to dried leaves and compost. The Doctor and Mel say their goodbyes and left the Hyperion 3.

Rose was the first to speak after the screen went black, “Did none of the unfortunate creatures survive, Doctor?”

“No, my lady,” he answered sadly. “Had even a leaf survived and fallen on fertile soil, a Vervoid would have grown.”

The Valeyard took the opportunity, “Every Vervoid was destroyed by your ingenious plan.”

“Yes.”

“Whether or not the Doctor has proved himself innocent of meddling is no longer the cardinal issue before this court. He has proved himself guilty of a far greater crime.”

Rose regretted making this point because she knew that this was not the first, nor the last time her husband had been forced into taking an action such as this in order to save far greater numbers. “You refer to Article seven of Gallifreyan law?”

“No, my lady, that cannot apply!” the Doctor argued. “Had a single Vervoid reached Earth, the human race would have been eliminated!”

“Article seven permits no exceptions,” the Valeyard pointed out. “The Doctor has destroyed a complete species. The charge must now be genocide.”


	24. Who is That Man Behind the Curtain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter that deals with Trial of a Time Lord. It is NOT the end of the story. I regret how much material I needed to copy from the original episodes for these chapters, but the nitpicker in me refused to change established canon for this story. After this, we go back to everything coming straight from my own head while fitting things into established events.

Chapter Twenty-Four – Who Is That Man Behind the Curtain?

To deal with the accusations by the Doctor that the Matrix had been tampered with (and to allow her husband access to the man after the obvious events were concluded), the Inquisitor requested the presence of the Keeper of the Matrix. Rose was happy that everything was almost over, but knew that the hardest part for both her husband and the past Doctor was still to come. Her nervousness was obvious to both of them and she could feel that their tension was rising as well.

When the Keeper finally arrived, they were able to continue, “I came as soon as I could, my lady.”

“Thank you, Keeper,” Rose said graciously. “Doctor, do you have any further evidence in your defence?”

The Valeyard stopped her, “My lady, with all due respect, have we not seen enough? Are you not forgetting Article seven and the irrefutable charge which faces the Doctor? That of genocide?”

“I shall deal with that charge in due course, Valeyard. Now kindly don't interrupt me again,” she retorted sharply. “Doctor, do you have any further evidence in your defence?”

“No, my lady, but I would point out that much of the Railyard's so-called evidence was a farrago of distortion which would have had Ananias, Baron Munchausen and every other famous liar blushing down to their very toe nails,” the Doctor replied. “Much of the evidence was not as I remembered.”

“Do you still maintain the Matrix has been tampered with?” she asked.

“Yes, madam, I do. All I do not yet understand is who did it and why.”

“Your accusation would be laughable if it were not so outrageous,” Rose said. “However, as you see, I have summoned the Keeper of the Matrix. Keeper?”

“My lady.”

“You have heard the Doctor's allegations. Is it at all possible for the data stored within the Matrix to be tampered with in any way?”

“Quite impossible, my lady,” the Keeper insisted. “No one may enter the Matrix without the Key of Rassilon.” He indicated the key that was fastened to his uniform.

“And by whom may the key be used?” asked the Doctor.

“Qualified people,” was his answer. “For inspection once in a millennium. Perhaps, to replace a transductor.”

“But keys can be copied, you'll agree?” the Doctor pointed out the flaw in their logic.

“The Key of Rassilon never leaves my possession,” the Keeper maintained.

“Except when it's in the hands of those qualified people.”

The Valeyard seemed to try and derail this line of defence, “This is a ridiculous allegation, my lady. The Doctor is challenging the evidence of the Matrix on the grounds that it has been tampered with, a charge he is totally unable to substantiate.”

“That is accepted,” said Rose. “Doctor, wild accusations of malfeasance do not constitute a defence.”

“The Matrix can be physically penetrated,” he testified. “The Keeper has admitted as much. Now, much of the evidence you saw was totally at variance with my own memory. Therefore, it has been deliberately distorted.”

“And who would do such a thing,” she asked, “even if it were possible?”

“Somebody who wants my head, such as the Valeyard.”

Rose knew that the Master would send the two contacts of the Doctor that would help him, even if the Doctor was as of yet unaware of it. “There is only one way to rebut the evidence of the Matrix, Doctor, and that is to produce witnesses who can support your version of events. Can you do that?”

“Well, of course I can't. You know I can't.”

“Then we must accept the Valeyard's evidence.”

“Any witnesses I might produce are scattered all over the universe and all through time. How can I find them now?” he asked defeatedly.

“Procrastination, my lady,” the Valeyard began. “The Doctor only...” He stopped as Mel and Glitz entered the court room.

The Doctor looked equally shocked by their appearance, “Melanie? Glitz? What are you doing here?”

Glitz looked a bit put out by the whole thing, “I was sent, wasn't I? Not my idea, mind.”

“Same here. What have you been up to?” Melanie asked the Doctor.

“Be silent,” Rose demanded. “Who sent you?”

“That's the beak, is it? They all look the same, don't they?” Glitz smirked. “Carved out of something hard and nasty.”

Rose practically glared at him, but she knew that was indeed the role she was supposed to play, so she let it go. “You said you were sent here, Sabalom Glitz. By whom?”

At that, the screen reactivated and the Master appeared. “By me, madam.”

“Oh no! Now I really am finished,” the Doctor despaired.

Mel asked confusedly, “Who's that?”

“Just one of my oldest enemies,” he replied.

Rose knew full well who this was, but their little play needed to ensure that all of the Time Lords in the room knew exactly what was happening. “This is entirely irregular. Who are you, sir?”

“I'm known as the Master,” he replied from the screen. “And as you see, I speak to you from within the Matrix. Proof, if any be needed, that not only qualified people can enter here.”

“But you haven't the Key of Rassilon,” the Keeper said incredulously.

“I got a very good copy, Keeper, just as the Doctor said was possible,” the Master explained.

“This is an independent inquiry appointed by the High Council to investigate serious charges...” Rose began, but was interrupted by the Master on the screen.

“Madam, I know. I've followed the trial with great interest and indeed amusement, but now I must intervene for the sake of justice.”

“Justice?” the Doctor argued, not yet realizing that the Master was actually intending to help his side of the case. “Pay no attention, madam. He has no concept of what justice is. He'd see me dead tomorrow.”

“Gladly, Doctor,” the Master replied. “But I'm not prepared to countenance a rival.”

“My lady,” the Valeyard said nervously. “I must propose an immediate adjournment.”

“I'm sorry, Valeyard,” Rose stated with the most authority she could muster at this tense point in the proceedings. “The evidence for the prosecution is completed. The ball, as the Doctor might say, is out of your court.”

“Doctor,” the Master supplied, “I've sent you two star witnesses. I knew you'd need them.”

“With due respect, Sagacity,” the Valeyard argued. “The matter of witnesses is for you to decide. We've seen enough to know that Glitz is an admitted criminal. Any testimony from him must therefore be dubious in the extreme.”

“But not from me,” added Mel, happily. “I'm as truthful, honest, and about as boring as they come.”

“This court is not, for the moment, impugning your integrity, young lady.”

The Master on the screen stated, “Let Sabalom Glitz speak.”

“Criminals have been known to speak the truth, Valeyard, especially when their own interests are not at stake,” Rose acknowledged.

“My point, my lady, is that this person who calls himself the Master, whoever he might be, should not be permitted to produce surprise witnesses,” he continued to argue.

“You pretend not to know me, do you?” the Master said. “I'm surprised by the shortness of the Valeyard's memory.”

Rose seemingly ignored the Master and directed her statement to the Valeyard, “The Doctor may, in his defence, call witnesses to rebut your evidence, after which you may cross-examine them. That is the procedure, Valeyard.”

“My lady,” he acknowledged.

“If I might intercede?” the Master asked.

“You have no part in these proceedings, sir,” Rose replied haughtily.

“Corporeally, of course not, but I'm present, and enjoying myself enormously.”

“Doctor, please examine your witnesses,” she said, continuing to ignore the Master on the screen behind her.

“Yes, madam,” the Doctor replied, trusting her.

Glitz was entertaining himself by examining the carvings on the furniture nearby. He looked as if he might try to remove some of it to take with him, “This is real machonite, you know. Worth a few grotzits today, Your Honour.”

“Glitz..” the Doctor said, trying to redirect his attention to the matter at hand.

“I could make you a fair offer on a job lot, do you a very good deal.”

“Glitz!” the Doctor shouted as Rose did her very best to keep a straight face.

“What?”

“You were sent here by the Master...,” he said, expecting some explanation.

“Yeah, well, he's a business partner, so to speak. We've had a few nice little tickles together,” Glitz smiled winningly.

“This court is not interested in your sordid business deals, Glitz,” the Doctor told him with some exasperation.

“Very good, Doctor. Keep him to the point,” Rose said to the man who was not yet her husband.

“When we last met, you expressed interest in a box,” the Doctor continued his interrogation.

“Right,” Glitz answered.

“What was in that box?” The Doctor was happy that he would finally get this question answered.

“I don't know. Scientific stuff, so he said,” Glitz indicated the Master on the screen. “Stuff the Sleepers have been nicking from the Matrix for years.”

“The Matrix? My Matrix?” the Keeper said, not believing his ears.

“Right,” Glitz continued. “Well, it seems the Sleepers had found a way to break into the Matrix, and they were creaming off all this high-tech info to take back to Andromeda.”

“But they were operating from Earth,” the Doctor said, looking for the final pieces to the puzzle.

“Of course. That was their cover, wasn't it? They knew that the Time Lords eventually would trace back the leak.”

“He's lying, my lady,” the Valeyard interrupted.

“I don't think so, Stackyard,” the Doctor said. “It all begins to make very good sense.”

“That's it, Doc. Now we're getting at the dirt,” Mel added.

“Doc?” the Doctor said with a look of disgust that was very familiar to Rose. She giggled internally at the memory of a similar reaction to Jack calling him that. The Doctor shook off the thought and continued, “Carry on, Glitz. What happened next?”

“Well, eventually the Time Lords did suss out the leak, so they wanted to wipe out all the Sleepers, and they used this er, magno... Magno...”

“Magnotron?” the Doctor supplied.

Rose recognized that word. That was the machine that the Daleks had used to move the 27 planets when they were trying to wipe out the universe with their Reality Bomb. Apparently, the Time Lords had a similar planet moving machine.

“That's it,” confirmed Glitz.

“Well, that can only be done by an order in the High Council,” the Doctor accused.

The Master spoke up at this point, “Of course, Doctor. To protect their own secrets, they drew the Earth and its constellation billions of miles across space.”

“Causing the fireball which nearly destroyed the planet,” he continued.

“Of little consequence in the High Council's planning. The robot recovery mission from Andromeda sped past Earth, out into space. Gallifreyan secrets were saved, except that at the first intimation of the coming fireball, the Andromedans were able to set up a survival chamber for the Sleepers,” the Master finished filling in all the remaining information.

The Doctor now had all of the information needed to reveal the conspiracy in the High Council. All that was left was completing the charade surrounding the Valeyard so that the new High Council would trust this Doctor, they could send the Master away and gain access to the Matrix to find a way to save the Valeyard's life and therefore hers as well. Rose couldn't wait to leave.

“So that's why Earth was renamed Ravalox. That sanctimonious gang of hypocrites were covering their tracks,” the Doctor concluded.

“Exactly,” affirmed the Master. “It takes time, Doctor, but eventually you get there.”

“They put an ancient culture like the Earth to the sword for the sake of a few miserable, filthy scientific advances?” The Doctor's disgust was showing now.

“Big market for them, Doctor,” Glitz interrupted. “So he said. Worth lots of grotzits.”

The fury of the Doctor came out now, “In all my travellings throughout the universe, I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here. The oldest civilization, decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core. Ha! Power-mad conspirators, Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen, they're still in the nursery compared to us. Ten million years of absolute power, that's what it takes to be really corrupt.”

“Take it easy, Doc,” Mel tried to placate him.

Rose tried as well, “Doctor, these unseemly outbursts...”

“Unseemly outbursts?” he shouted, “If I hadn't visited Ravalox, as I then thought of it, the High Council would have kept this outrage carefully buried, as presumably they have for several centuries.”

The Master wasn't done yet, “I must agree. You have an endearing habit of blundering into these things, Doctor. And the High Council took full advantage of your blunder.”

“Explain that,” Rose said to the Master.

“They made a deal with the Valeyard, or as I've always known him, the Doctor, to adjust the evidence, in return for which he was promised the remainder of the Doctor's regenerations.”

“This is clearly...” the Valeyard began to argue.

“Just a minute!” the Doctor interrupted. “Did you call him the Doctor?!”

Rose quickly told the Doctor in his mind, ~'We WILL explain, but we're being watched.'~

“There is some evil in all of us, Doctor, even you,” the Master said. “The Valeyard is an amalgamation of the darker sides of your nature, somewhere between your twelfth and final incarnation. And I may say, you do not improve with age.”

“Madam, this revelation should halt this trial immediately. Surely even Gallifreyan law must acknowledge that the same person cannot be both prosecutor and defendant,” the Doctor proposed, trying to get them all out of this situation now that the conspiracy had been uncovered.

“The single purpose of this trial is to determine the defendant's guilt or otherwise on the basis of the evidence that has been presented,” Rose said, indicating that it wasn't over yet. “Anything else is, for the moment, irrelevant.”

“What?” the Doctor shouted as the Valeyard ran from the room.

Mel shouted, “Doctor!”

As Rose shouted, “Valeyard!” and the Doctor chased after him.

“Glitz! Come on!” the Doctor called out.

“What?” The criminal seemed to think that his part in this was over.

The Doctor, Mel, Glitz, Rose and the Keeper all entered the hallway. 

“We need him,” the Doctor explained to Glitz. The only way he was going to get the final answers was to follow himself.

“But he hasn't had time,” said Glitz.

“There must be another way out of here,” the Doctor said while searching the area.

“He's gone!”

Just then they saw, in the wall, a section that looked like glowing stained glass.

The Keeper looked at it in awe, “The Seventh Door. He must have had a key.”

“What?” asked the Doctor.

“The seventh entrance to the Matrix,” he clarified.

“Well,” the Doctor rushed him, “quickly man, open it! He must be brought back.”

“I agree,” said Rose.

The Keeper gives the key to the Doctor and he opens the panel to reveal a bright, white light that is the portal into the Matrix.

“You'll never find him,” the Keeper insists. “The Matrix is a micro-universe.”

Mel looks worried, “Don't go, Doctor.”

“I must. Perhaps nothing in my life has ever been so important,” the Doctor glances subtly at Rose. “Come on, Glitz.” 

He pulls Glitz through the doorway with him as Glitz shouts, “Me?” and Mel shouts, “Doctor!”

Rose knows her job now, the play will continue on the screen in the court room and she needs them to go and watch it. “Be silent! Come, let us return to the trial room.”

“Why?” asks Mel. “There's nobody to try anymore.”

“Come along, both of you.” Rose leads them back into the court room and sends feelings of love and support towards both versions of the Doctor.

************************  
Inside the Matrix, the Valeyard knows that the Master and Glitz at least will see this part of the performance even if they don't see it all on the screen with Rose. He wasn't there before and doesn't know how much they could see. Trying to make this all appear very menacing and evil as he remembers, he creates a dark, creepy street for the Doctor and Glitz to fall into.

He calls to the Doctor as an omnipresent voice and gives a few of his best villain laughs. He creates a large, well lit building, with a sign blazing the name “The Fantasy Factory” across the front. When the Doctor and Glitz approached the building, he sent a harpoon to strike Glitz, just as he remembered happening. Glitz was wearing a mark seven Postidion Life Preserver, after all.

Disguised as an old, portly gentleman named Popplewick, the Valeyard prepared to torture his past self with what he knew was their worst nightmare, Red Tape. He sat at the desk and wrote nonsense paperwork with a quill pen.

“How do you do?” the Doctor said upon entering the room. “I think we're expected.”

“Are you sure we're in the right place?” Glitz asked nervously.

The Doctor rings the bell and finally, 'Mr. Popplewick' looks up at him.

“Yes?”

“We'd like to see the proprietor, please,” said the Doctor. Obviously, he would need to follow the rules set out in this if he wanted to get anywhere.

“Do you have an appointment, sir? Mister Chambers only sees people by appointment. Most particular about appointments is our Mister Chambers.” He was having far too much fun as Popplewick.

“I think you'll find we're expected,” the Doctor said with some exasperation.

“What is your name, sir?”

“I am known as the Doctor,” he said, thinking 'as if you didn't know.' “And this is Mister Sabalom Glitz.”

'Mr. Popplewick' looks through his book thoroughly as if there were hundreds of other people that had passed through or had appointments.

“If this Valeyard wants you dead, he's got a funny way of going about it,” Glitz said as he eyed the strange room filled with old books and papers.

“I've told you,” the Doctor explained. “It's called humiliation. Could you hurry up, please? We haven't got all day.”

“There are procedures to follow, sir. Necessary routines to be completed. Even when I've found your names, there are many forms to be inscribed before you may move on to the next stage of processing,” he outlined. “Processing is very important in this establishment. I'm sure that even you will understand that such things cannot be rushed, sir.”

“Oh, I don't know. I've always been a bit of an iconoclast by nature.” The Doctor opens a door to another office and walks through to find another 'Mr. Popplewick.'

The first 'Popplewick' shouts, “You can't go in there, not without an appointment!”

The second 'Popplewick' says, “Ah Doctor.”

The Doctor looks back to see the other one is still there, but closes the door and continues on to this new one. “Well, at least you're expecting us.”

“We all are.”

Glitz pointed out, “Your lookalike out there wasn't.”

“He is the exception,” 'Mr. Popplewick' answered. “The very junior Mr. Popplewick isn't permitted to expect anyone.”

“What's he talking about?” asked Glitz.

“I think it's called bureaucracy,” the Doctor sighed.

“I prefer to call it order,” 'Mr. Popplewick' said, “and the holy writ of order is procedure. I'm sure you agree.”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Glitz nodded.

“For example, you wish to see the proprietor. Now, the correct procedure is to make an appointment.”

“But we're already expected,” argued the Doctor.

“But the junior Mr. Popplewick isn't allowed to expect anyone.”

“You knew we were coming,” Glitz reasoned. “Why didn't you give him the nod?”

“And upset the procedure?” he asked unbelievingly. “The junior Mr. Popplewick has his pride too.”

“I don't understand any of this,” argued Glitz. “Here we are, waiting to duck a terminal knuckle sandwich, and all this screeve's going on about it whether we've got an appointment or not.”

“Is there no way to expedite the procedure?” The Doctor was sure they were just wasting more time by arguing and might as well just find a way through the blasted red tape.

A look of incredulity was on 'Mr. Popplewick's' face, “Expedite?! I am a senior clerk, sir. To me, the procedure is sacrosanct. My work is a celebration of all that is perfect. Why speed perfection?” He was really laying it on thick, but why not. There wasn't a rush and they did need to make the show look good.

“Because your employer wants me dead!” the Doctor stated finally. 

“You seem to have found the one little weakness in our procedure, sir. Would you sign this?” He hands him a paper disguised as a contract of sorts, but really containing a letter to the Doctor explaining everything. He could read lightning fast and could keep up the charade immediately.

“What is it?” asked the Doctor as he glanced at it.

“A consent form, sir. The corridors in this factory are very long and dark. Should you unexpectedly die, our blessed proprietor, Mister J J Chambers, insists he inherits your remaining lives.”

“Obviously the Valeyard doesn't trust the High Council to honour their side of the bargain.” The Doctor reaches for the quill behind 'Mr. Popplewick's' ear, but he hands him a different quill.

The Doctor quickly reads over the 'contract':

Doctor,  
This has all been a show to expose the conspiracy regarding Ravalox, but there is another problem. I know you are sensing my wife. You know how strong a bond we have if you can feel it. The short story is, due to a Human/Time Lord biological meta-crisis, I'm not entirely Time Lord anymore. We bonded before we found out she could regenerate and now I'm dying (even more quickly than a human lifespan would normally dictate). I refuse to let her die. We needed access to the Matrix to find a solution and I cannot get to it in our regular timeline. 

Anyway, we need to keep up the act for the Master AND the Time Lords in the court room. They will most likely make up much of the new High Council and it's best if they think you saved them all and they'll leave you alone for a bit. I'm leaving anyway. 

Play it up, make it look good! Oh, and I have a little surprise for the Master and Glitz, so don't worry about them once they bugger off.

Sincerely,  
The Doctor

Glitz tried to stop the Doctor from signing the contract, “Sign that and you're a dead man.”

“We're in the Valeyard's domain. He can try and kill me any time he likes. I'll sign my remaining lives away to Mister J J Chambers,” the Doctor said as he scribbled at the bottom of the page. Inside he was smirking at the thought of the act his later self had been putting on all this time and the one that he was about to portray. Outside, he maintained his usual confident bluster.

“Are you sure about this?” Glitz said uneasy with how accepting the Doctor was being.

“Absolutely. Now can we see your proprietor?” the Doctor asked as he handed back the very important document.

“The waiting room is through there,” 'Mr. Popplewick' stated as he sorted the paperwork that had been completed to his satisfaction. “You will be summoned as soon as your signature has been verified.”

“This is madness,” Glitz complained.

“Not if it precipitates my meeting with the Valeyard,” the Doctor responded while stepping through the indicated door. He then found himself on a beach. “This is a very odd waiting room. Where are the hopelessly out of date magazines?”

He found that he was alone on the beach, “Hmm? Glitz? ... Glitz?”

The Valeyard was heard from the sky, laughing maniacally.

“What have you done with him?”

“Look to your own predicament, Doctor!” the voice answered.

Hands rose from out of the sand to pull the Doctor down into the ground. “This is an illusion. I deny it!” he shouted to the sky.

“Not this time.”

“This isn't happening!” the Doctor called as he was pulled into the sand.

“You are dead, Doctor.”

“No!”

“Goodbye, Doctor. Bwahahahahahahaha!”

The Valeyard thought to his wife, ~'Please tell him to trust me. I think he believed the letter I showed him, but we need to be sure that he doesn't think I'm trying to trick him or anything.'~

~'I'll tell him, love.'~ Rose's voice answered in his mind.

He watched as Glitz appeared on the beach and tried to rescue the Doctor from the sand and the Doctor used the power of his mind within the Matrix to simply reappear above ground.

“Oh, do concentrate, Glitz,” the Doctor said. “How often must I tell you, we're not dealing with reality?”

The Valeyard appeared with them on the beach. “Why waste your breath on that simple minded oaf?” He instantly teleported himself next to Glitz and snarled at him, “You cannot speak as though reality is a one-dimensional concept.”

He teleported again, this time next to the Doctor, “Fortunately, there is a reality that you and I can both agree on. The ultimate reality.”

“Death?” said the Doctor.

“The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns,” the Valeyard started.

“Puzzles the will,” the Doctor finished the quote. “Hamlet, act three, scene one.”

“I really must curb these urges. I've no wish to be contaminated by your whims and idiosyncrasies.”

“Quite so,” the Doctor agreed. “But what I don't comprehend...” he trails off when the Valeyard disappeared again.

“He's over here, Doc,” Glitz called. “Slippery customer, your other persona.”

“What I don't comprehend,” the Doctor restarted. “Is why you want me dead. No. No, let me rephrase that. It would satisfy my curiosity to know why you should go to such extraordinary lengths to kill me.”

The Valeyard moved again, “Come now, Doctor. How else can I obtain my freedom, operate as a complete entity, unfettered by your side of my existence? Only by ridding myself of you and your misplaced morality, your constant crusading, your...”

“Idiotic honesty?” Glitz added.

“Oaf. Microbe,” the Valeyard sneered at Glitz for interrupting his dramatic speech.

“Pardon me for trying to help. I'm neutral in this set-up, you know,” Glitz defended.

Directing his attention back to the Doctor, the Valeyard continued, “Only by releasing myself from the misguided maxims that you nurture can I be free.”

Glitz thought he could see the end coming, “Sounds to me like Armageddon's beckoning you, Doc.”

“With you destroyed and no longer able to constrain me, and with unlimited access to the Matrix, there will be nothing beyond my reach.” Fading away from the beach, the Valeyard went back to the factory building to wait for the Master to bring the Doctor to him. He waited on the balcony in the Popplewick costume and once he was spotted, went inside to return shortly as the Valeyard again. He had a forcefield surrounding himself to protect him from the Master's weapon. Throwing some quills in their direction, he created some harmless explosions to scare off the Master and Glitz. He went back inside to concentrate on creating the next mirage, which was Mel taking the Doctor back to the court room. In the final moments of the fake trial, the Doctor was declared guilty of genocide and sentenced to death. The Doctor accepted it graciously.

*************************

Once Rose managed to get everyone back into the court room, she was faced with the Master still grinning maniacally on the screen. “Assuming I accept what you say about the evidence against the Doctor, how much of it had been contrived?”

“For a lie to work, madam, it must be shrouded in truth. Therefore most of what you saw was true,” he answered. 

Rose knew of course, that the information that the Master had was all fed to him by their CIA contacts and had already been assured of Peri's safety. “Then the young woman, the one who died, was that true?”

“Ah, the delightful Miss Perpugilliam Brown. That was clever of the Valeyard, exploiting the affection the Doctor had for her. But then, of course, the Valeyard would know precisely how the Doctor felt.”

“Then she lives?” Rose asked for the benefit of the audience.

“As a queen, set up on high by that warmongering fool, Ycarnos,” the Master confirmed.

“I am pleased.”

“Sentiment will not keep the Doctor alive, my lady.”

Mel asked, “isn't there something we can do to help?”

Rose continued in her role as Inquisitor, “In all my experience, I have never before had to conclude a case in both the absence of the accused and the prosecutor.”

“One and the same person, madam,” he sneered charmingly from the screen.

“So you've said, but can you prove that?”

“I know them both. But I suggest you question the High Council,” the Master accused. “They set up this travesty of a trial, making a scapegoat of the Doctor to conceal their own involvement.”

“Is there any reason why I should accept that allegation from a renegade Time Lord?” Rose asked.

“Yes,” he answered. “If you're concerned with learning the truth.”

“What is your interest in this matter? Not, I think, concern for the Doctor.”

“Oh, indeed not. The Doctor's well matched against himself. One must destroy the other.”

“How utterly evil,” Mel scowled.

“Thank you,” he responded sweetly. “I think I'd lay a shade more odds on the Valeyard, though the possibility of their mutual destruction must exist. That would be perfect.”

“You're despicable!” replied the fiery ginger.

Rose interrupted their banter, “Am I to take it that some base desire for revenge is your motive for interfering?”

“There's nothing purer and more unsullied, madam, than the desire for revenge. But, if you follow the metaphor, I've thrown a pebble into the water. Perhaps killing two birds with one stone, and causing ripples that'll rock the High Council to its foundations. What more could a renegade wish for?”

When the Master disappeared from the screen, they saw the confrontation on the beach between the Doctor and the Valeyard, with Glitz beside them. They saw the Doctor and Glitz run into a TARDIS that was disguised as a hut and then it dematerialized.

Mel seemed to feel that she couldn't be content to watch the Doctor fight this battle without her, “We can't just sit here and do nothing. We've got to help him.”

“The Doctor chose to enter the Matrix. We are not empowered to interfere,” Rose answered.

The Keeper felt the need to present his opinion on the matter, “If I may, my lady? You are applying logical thought to a situation that recognizes no logic.”

“Give me the key to the Matrix. I'm going in there.” Mel tried to grab the key and get through the door, but the Keeper tripped her.

They watched as the Doctor was incapacitated by the Master and brought to the street outside the factory. From there, they saw the image of Mel leading the Doctor to the fake trial room where he was sentenced.

Mel couldn't take it anymore, “Switch it off. Switch it off!! The Doctor's been tricked into believing that that was the real trial room. The Valeyard's illusion has deliberately taken advantage of the Doctor's romantic nature. He's convinced he must sacrifice himself, and you're content to let him.”

“We cannot interfere,” Rose couldn't wait to drop this act.

“Well, I can!” Mel stomped on the Keeper's foot and grabbed the key as she ran out the door of the court room towards the Matrix.

In the court room, they watched the Matrix display as they saw more of the drama unfold. The Doctor revealed that he knew the trial conclusion was fake and was trying to get to the Valeyard for a final confrontation, but Mel had spoiled it. Inside the office of Mr. Popplewick, they found a paper with the names of the Time Lords in the court room. They determined that it was a hit list made by the Valeyard and that they were all in danger. From that point, the Matrix screen went blank and they were left without knowing what kind of danger might be in store for all of them.  
The Keeper of the Matrix re-entered the room from the side door, “My lady, an urgent message. The High Council has been deposed. Insurrectionists are running amok on Gallifrey.”

The screen reactivated, showing the Master once more. “Thank you, Keeper. That is the news I'd been awaiting. Listen carefully. I have an edict to deliver. Somewhere the Valeyard and the Doctor are engaged in their squalid duel. With luck, they'll kill each other, but that is a mere coincidental occurrence. What I have to impart is of vital importance to all of you. Now that Gallifrey is collapsing into chaos, none of you will be needed. Your office will be abolished. Only I can impose order. I have control of the Matrix. To disregard my commands will be to invite summary execution.”

A short time later, Mel came running back into the room shouting, “Disconnect the Matrix!!”

The Master looked at her in horror.

“We cannot switch off without the Keeper, and he's not present,” Rose answered.

“Then get out of here, quickly. Your lives depend on it!”

The Matrix screen suddenly exploded with energy sparking throughout the room. The Time Lords cowered in their seats while Rose and Mel covered their heads. When it all stopped, they stood slowly to assess the damage. Everyone seemed to be fine and the Doctor ran into the room.

“Ah. Now, let me see. Where were we? I was about to be sentenced, I believe.”

“All charges against you are dismissed, Doctor,” Rose smiled at him. “We owe you an immense debt of gratitude, which I can partly repay by telling you that the young woman, Miss Perpugillium Brown, is alive and well and living as a warrior queen with King Ycarnos.”

The Doctor closed his eyes and sighed happily, “Ah, Varoonik.” That was Ycarnos' battle cry after all.

“Now then, once law and order have been restored, a new High Council will need to be elected. Can I persuade you to stand for Lord President again?” Rose teased him.

“Ah. Ah ha. I've a better idea,” the Doctor teased right back.

Mel thought she knew what was going on, “He's going to suggest you stand.”

“Indeed I am,” he smirked at her. “And were there such a thing as an intergalactic postal vote, you'd have mine.”

“I shouldn't broadcast that, if I were you,” Mel said, giving the Doctor a look.

“Oh, you could do me one small favour, if you would?” the Doctor asked.

“Simply name it,” Rose replied.

“When the Matrix is restored, you can do what you like with the Master, but exercise leniency with Sabalom Glitz. He's not beyond redemption.”

“Just don't let him anywhere near the crown jewels,” Mel added.

Mel and the Doctor left towards the hallway where the TARDIS was waiting for them. As they were leaving, Rose thought to the past Doctor, ~'Until we meet again, my love.'~ She received a mental kiss in response and felt the TARDIS dematerialize from the space station.

A man in the Keeper's uniform was waiting for orders from the Inquisitor. “Repair the Matrix, Keeper. Requisition anything you need,” Rose said to her husband.

“My lady,” he replied as he bowed deeply toward her. This was of course, the Doctor actually. Now that he was disguised as the Keeper, no one would question him as he re-entered the Matrix.

Rose left the room with the other Time Lords to the room with refreshments again. The Doctor thought, ~'Wait for me out there. I'll let you know when I have what I need and I'll meet you to get out of here.'~

~'Alright. This has been one of the most exhausting days of my life, love. You owe me big time.'~

~'How about chips as soon as we leave?'~

She giggled in his mind, ~'Sounds perfect. Then we'll find a way out of this time stream, yes?'~

~'Yup!'~


	25. Chips and Old Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now they meet my favourite Classic Who Doctor!! The best after David Tennant, IMHO. You'll notice from the numbers I'm attaching to his lives, that in this story, there was a War Doctor (as much as I dislike that addition).

Chapter Twenty-Five – Chips and Old Friends

When Rose and the Doctor finally met again, two hours later, he didn't seem to be in as good a mood as she had hoped he would be. If he had found an answer, he should be happy. But if he hadn't, then why had he stopped searching the Matrix?

They had both changed back into their regular clothing. Rose in her long red skirt and white blouse, the Doctor in his brown suit.

“What's wrong, love? Did you find a solution?” Rose couldn't hold back asking any longer.

“Yes, Rose. I found a solution. It just isn't ...” His breath caught in his throat for a moment. “We'll discuss it later. For now, I promised you chips, right?” The Doctor put on his mask of happiness for now. There was a solution that would give them a long time together, but there was still a big sacrifice on Rose's part and they would need the help of the other Doctor to do it.

“Alright, where are we going for chips then?” She knew when to let something go with him for a bit and when to push harder. For now, she would let him stew on this if that's what he wanted.

“Well... As you know, our vortex manipulator won't work right now because it is attached to our time stream and we are within the area of the time lock that has separated all of Gallifrey's history from our regular time stream. BUT the CIA has given me this time ring which will allow us to travel within the time lock to planets nearby. There is one place where we can go that has really good chips. Not as good as London, mind you, but really quite good.” He was swinging their hands between them as he rambled. It was something they always did and that little bit of normal was helping them relax after the stress of the past month.

“And? What's it called?”

“Pazithi Gallifreya. It is one of the moons of Gallifrey. There's a mining colony there and they accept all kinds of alien races for trading purposes (unlike Galllifrey). They have a market there for the sake of visitors that sells all kinds of different foods.” He grinned at her goofily.

Rose grinned back, “Well then, allons-y!”

They both gripped the time ring and transported into a bustling marketplace. It was easy to tell it was a mining colony. Everything was a little bit grimy and well used. They could see Gallifrey looming in the sky and beyond it, the two suns. Hand-in-hand they made their way to a booth that was selling human food and ordered some chips to share. There were some benches nearby, so they sat and talked about silly, light hearted things.

Suddenly, Rose had a familiar feeling in her mind. One that she had already felt that same day in fact. “Doctor, there's another you here!”

“What? I don't remember coming here around this point in time.” He looked around confusedly.

Rose smirked at him, “Well, I think there might be a good reason why you wouldn't remember it.” She gave him the look that he often gave to say you just dribbled on your shirt.

“Oh,” he said with sudden realization. “Because he meets us and I can't remember information about my own future.... right.” The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. “Any idea where he is then?”

Rose's brow furrowed a bit, “I'm still getting used to this feeling, so I'm not sure, but I think he's headed towards us. He is probably looking for me since I can feel his curiosity and a bit of determination.”

Just then, the later Doctor saw his past self coming down the street with a confused Jamie and Victoria chasing after him.

“What in the world is it that you're looking for, Doctor?” Jamie called.

“I'm sensing something, Jamie. Something, no... someONE very important.” The second Doctor walked towards them and came to a stop directly in front of a brightly smiling Rose Tyler.

“Hello,” she grinned at him with her arm around her husband's shoulders. 

“Oh my word,” he said with a look of shock on his face.

“Well, who are they, Doctor?” Jamie asked as Victoria finally caught up with them.

The second Doctor continued to stare, open-mouthed at Rose. So, the Doctor in brown stood up to take Jamie's hand, “Hello, Jamie,” he smiled. “I'm the Doctor.”

“What?” Jamie practically shouted, “Now wait just a gosh darn minute! How could YOU be the Doctor?”

“Calm down, Jamie,” the second Doctor said. “I'll try to explain.” He looked at his future self for a moment as he thought. “It's a little crowded here, why don't we go somewhere with a little more room for us to all sit down and talk.”

Rose spoke up then, “That sounds like a wonderful idea, Doctor. I don't suppose we could go to the TARDIS? I haven't seen any seating areas since we arrived.”

He stared at her again, disbelievingly. The later Doctor nudged him with his elbow and he started out of his dazed state. “Yes! Yes, that sounds like a splendid idea. Shall we?” He offered Rose his arm and she happily took the arms of both Doctors as they strolled back towards the TARDIS.

Jamie and Victoria followed them, looking rather confused by the whole interaction.

“Just when we finally go someplace other than Earth, we end up going straight back into the TARDIS,” Victoria complained.

“Aye,” said Jamie. “I wonder if he'll let us wander around a bit later before we have to leave?”

When they arrived at the TARDIS, Rose went straight for the time rotor. She stroked the console lovingly and cooed at her, “Aren't you lovely, Old Girl.” Victoria and Jamie looked at her strangely while the second Doctor smiled broadly.

“Why don't we all go sit in the galley for some tea?” suggested the later Doctor.

“Oh yes!” Rose said, smiling happily. “The tea on that space station was absolute rubbish.”

“Of course,” said the second Doctor. “Come along, Jamie, Victoria. We'll all have a nice little chat.”

Once in the galley, Rose set about making tea for everyone and the later Doctor went straight to the cupboards to find biscuits as well. Jamie and Victoria were still looking confused as they sat at the table with the second Doctor. The later Doctor joined them at the table with the biscuits and Rose leaned against the counter while she waited for the water to boil.

“Now then,” began the second Doctor. “He is, in fact, me from the future.” he held up his hands to stop the oncoming arguments. “Time Lords, when we are about to die, do a thing called regenerating. Instead of dying, our body changes. We look, act and sound completely different, but our mind and memories remain. So, at some point in my future, I will become him.”

“Alright, let's pretend that I believe you, Doctor.” Jamie said, sounding like he didn't really believe it at all. “Who's she then?” He pointed to Rose.

“She,” the second Doctor said while looking at Rose longingly, “is the reason I found my future self at all.” He was staring again.

The later Doctor rolled his eyes at just how besotted his past self was with her. “She,” the later Doctor began, “is my wife.” 

“Really?” Victoria said.

“Absolutely,” replied Rose. “It is a real pleasure to meet you Victoria, and you, Jamie. The Doctor has spoken so fondly of both of you. I'm Rose by the way, Rose Tyler.”

“It's a pleasure to meet you as well,” Victoria said, smiling at Rose. Victoria was wearing a short dress with a sparkly bit on the top and several long necklaces. “We just had the most terrifying time on Earth and we were trying to end up somewhere other than England for a change.”

“When are you, exactly?” asked the later Doctor.

“We've just finished dealing with some Yeti taking over the London Underground,” answered the second Doctor.

“Ah! I see,” he thought for a few moments with his brow furrowed. “Yes, we did end up in England a lot then, didn't we?”

Rose brought the tea over to the table and sat next to the second Doctor. “I wonder if we could ask a favour of you, Doctor?” She looked to her husband who nodded. “We need a lift back to Earth, if you don't mind?”

“And,” her husband interjected, “you can't ask why.”

He scowled slightly at his future self, but looked back at Rose and smiled sweetly, “For you, my dear, anything.”

Rose smiled and ruffled his dark mop of hair, “You are just adorable!”

The later Doctor was scowling back now. When they had first bonded, back in the other universe, he had been so sure that he would never have to face meeting up with his past incarnations. He tried to think about how he would feel if he saw a 19 year old Rose again and relaxed ... a bit.

“Doctor,” Jamie interrupted. “I don't suppose Victoria and I could go explore for a bit before we have to leave? It's just that we hardly ever get to see a different planet.”

“Certainly, Jamie. Just stay together and be careful. Meet back here in about an hour or so, alright?” The second Doctor still couldn't seem to take his eyes off of Rose who was practically giggling at his shameless mooning.

Once Jamie and Victoria were gone, the later Doctor pointed out, “You do realize that you'll forget all of this, right?”

“Yes, yes, of course,” he replied dismissively.

“Will you make Jamie and Victoria forget as well or just trust them not to mention it ever again?”

“Oh, I'm sure, if I explain it well enough, they can manage not to say anything.”

 

“Well, Doctor,” Rose directed her statement towards her husband this time. “While I know that getting precisely where we want to go is hopeless in the TARDIS.” She smiled fondly. “Where are we aiming to get back to?”

“Well,” he thought about it while ruffling his hair a bit. “We left Jack and the others in Cardiff, 2008. We'll have to aim for some point after that since we don't want to bump into ourselves... again.”

“Alright, we'll try to meet up with Jack again and trust the TARDIS to bring us to the right time.” She smiled at him. “How does that sound to you, Doctor?” She asked as she looked back to the younger Doctor.

“Hmm?” He blinked. “Oh! Oh, yes. Certainly. You've left the TARDIS there then, is that the problem?”

“Well,” said the later Doctor, rubbing the back of his neck. “Something like that, yeah.”

“Since we'll be waiting a bit for Jamie and Victoria to come back, I'm going to go freshen up a bit, if that's alright?” Rose asked.

“Of course, love,” her husband answered. “She'll show you where the wardrobe room is now.”

Rose left to pack a bigger-on-the-inside bag from the wardrobe room and take a shower. There was no sense in not taking advantage of the never ending hot water provided by the TARDIS while they were here and not hiding in the zero room. 

The later Doctor was getting quite tired. The trial had been very long and while he still didn't need to sleep as much as a normal human, he needed a lot more than he did as a full Time Lord. Unfortunately, one hour waiting for his companions to come back, was not enough time for a nap. He would just have to push though until this Doctor dropped them off and they could get some proper sleep. He was thankful that his past self was so easily distracted by Rose. It meant that it was easy to gloss over the fact that they didn't have the TARDIS and he didn't seem to notice that Rose was a rather unusual name for a Time Lady.

Of course, now that Rose was out of the room, it would be much more difficult to dodge the dangerous topics of conversation. He began to tidy up the dishes from their tea, in the hopes of avoiding tough questions.

“So,” the second Doctor said while clasping his hands in front of him and looking at his future self. “Which one are you, then?”

“Oooh,” he sighed. “You would go for the hard one first, eh?”

The second Doctor looked confused. How could that be a hard question? “I'm sorry?”

“Well, I'm a bit of an odd situation really. I'm a bit of an anomaly you might say. You won't remember this, so I suppose it doesn't matter. When you regenerate into your 12th life, there's a bit of a split which created me. So there's two of us now. The other me has the TARDIS and we need to go find him.” He hoped that would be enough of an explanation to have his past self leave it there.

The second Doctor looked at him partially in shock but also with a bit of suspicion. “Alright, I'll accept that for now. Although, that is odd, even for me. When will I meet Rose?”

“Right about the beginning of your 10th life. And I won't tell you anything more about that meeting.” He smiled fondly at the memory.

“Fine,” he sulked. “I suppose there isn't much point in you telling me very much anyway, since I will forget after I drop you off.”

“I'm sorry. Our life has always been complicated and trust me, it will only become more so.”

About an hour later, Jamie and Victoria hadn't returned to the TARDIS and both Doctors were getting worried. 

Rose had changed into black trousers and a red jumper, so that she would be ready for running now that their stint with bureaucracy was over. When she arrived in the console room, she saw both Doctors checking the scanners with their brows furrowed in concentration.

“I can't find them,” said her husband.

“Well, how many humans can there possibly be on Pazithi Gallifreya?” Asked the second Doctor.

“Apparently, quite a few, but they all seem to be gathered in one place. So, that would be the best place to start looking.” The later Doctor put his jacket back on and grabbed Rose's hand as they headed towards the door.

The second Doctor followed them, but wasn't quite sure what to do with himself in this odd grouping. He was used to being the one leading the charge, not following along. Rose sensed his insecurity and held out her other hand for him. He smiled at her and took it willingly.

As they approached the area where the TARDIS scanner had indicated a large group of human life signs, they could hear quite a bit of shouting. They all peeked around the corner to get a look at what was going on and saw that there was a group of Raxacoricofallipatorians with guns, herding all of the humans onto a space ship.

“Ok,” the later Doctor said, “we need a plan.”

Rose smiled, “Not a problem. You two, create a distraction. Blow something up or something, you're good at that.” They both looked at her rather gobsmacked. “And I will help the prisoners escape while they're busy with you. Agreed?”

“Ummm... well, I... uh,” the second Doctor sputtered.

The later Doctor bobbed his head back and forth as he looked upward, “Yes, well... I suppose it's about as much of a plan as we ever have. Here's my sonic, that should help with the lock on the gates over there. Lead them out that way, alright?”

Rose smiled broadly and skipped off to the other side of the courtyard so she could sneak around behind the guards.

“You let her just run off like that?” The second Doctor asked incredulously.

“What? Rose Tyler is more than capable of taking care of herself!” the later Doctor assured him. “Mind you, there is a reason I call her jeopardy friendly...” He stared off into the distance for a moment before shaking himself out of it. “Anyway, yes, distraction! Raxacoricofallipatorians! Vinegar is very dangerous for them, the last ones we met were extremely profit minded (wanted to nuke the Earth and sell it off in pieces as fuel!) and their justice system back home is extremely nasty.”

“Ok, we can deal with greedy,” said the second Doctor. His brow furrowed in thought for a moment. “Missing Princess? Big reward?”

“Sounds like the start of a plan. Allons-y!” The later Doctor grabbed his younger self by the arm and pulled him in the general direction of the guards. Very loudly, he started to enact their plan, “I'm telling you, if we don't find Princess Victoria soon, the Empress is going to be very upset. She might start searching every ship within two light years of here!”

“I know, she is extremely worried. Especially with that explosion in the nearby pickle factory. The vinegar spillage was terrible. Who knows what might have happened in the chaos!” The second Doctor added. They saw the nearby guard flinch a bit at that.

“Of course, if someone were to help us find Princess Victoria and her servant, Jamie, the reward would be astronomical! Empress Rose is so generous and kind.” The later Doctor pointed straight at one of the guards and strode towards him, “You there! I don't suppose your group would help us find the missing Princess Victoria and her servant? The reward would be astounding to be sure!”

“Well... I ... um, we... that is...” the guard tripped over his words as he tried to process what just happened. “Glune! Come here!” One of the other guards came over and they had a whispered conversation. After a moment, they called one of the other guards over to discuss things as well. They thought they were being secretive in their discussion, but the Doctors had rather exceptional hearing and didn't miss a word. They had plans to take this group of humans to sell as slaves back on Raxacoricofallipatorius as their much smaller body size made it easier for them to get into the tighter spaces of their own mining operations. This moon always seemed to attract a large variety of species they could exploit.

When Rose saw that the aliens were in a bit of a huddled conversation, she called quietly to some of the humans and motioned for the opening she had made in the nearby gate. She could see Jamie helping from the back to hurry people through.

The Raxacoricofallipatorians all turned back to the two Doctors, in agreement that a huge reward for losing two of their slaves for sale was well worth the sacrifice. One of them spoke up for the group, “What do these particular humans look like? I'm sure we could help you find them.”

“Well,” the later Doctor rubbed the back of his neck, drawing out the time before they realized what had happened. “They look rather like, those humans right there.” He pointed at Rose who hurried Victoria and Jamie as the last ones through the gate and sonicked it shut behind her. As soon as the guards all turned in shock, the two Doctors ran for it to find them on the other side.

The guards ran towards the gate to follow their captives, but found it was now locked and bounced off of it ineffectually. By the time they looked around, there were no captives, no Doctors, and their employer was going to be very upset with them.

The other captives had all scattered back to safety while Rose, Jamie and Victoria were laughing away as Rose told them about the Slitheen family trying to take over the world using human skin suits as disguises. The later Doctor approached with his hands in his pockets and a huge grin on his face. The younger Doctor ran over to check on Victoria and Jamie. 

He then turned a beaming smile to Rose, “That was marvellous, my dear, simply perfect.”

“Thanks,” she smiled as she ruffled his hair. He practically purred at that. “That's just what we do. Probably would have stumbled across it even if we hadn't run into you.” Rose handed the sonic screwdriver back to her husband and hugged him tightly. He picked her up and whirled her around himself before putting her back on her feet.

“Time we were off, I think,” said the later Doctor.

“Of course, time to get you two back where you belong. Back to the TARDIS.”

On the walk back, Rose once again had a Doctor on each arm. She retold some of the story about the Slitheen to the Doctor who had missed it earlier. This time she made it all the way to the point where they blew up 10 Downing Street and the younger Doctor looked at them with wide eyes.

“I wonder who's Prime Minister now?” Rose asked. “I didn't think to check when we came back.”

“Don't know,” said the later Doctor. “Never really bothered to keep track of that stuff much.”

“Right. Well,” said the second Doctor, “Where was it you said? Cardiff?”

“Yup! Anywhere after 2008 should be fine,” said the later Doctor. “Not too far after, mind you. We would rather see our friends before they've turned grey.”

“Of course,” he started flicking switches and the later Doctor joined him in setting the coordinates.

Rose looked around for a railing to hold onto, but there wasn't one. Her husband noticed where she was looking and told her, “There isn't a handrail, love. It shouldn't be as bumpy as you're used to anyway.”

Jamie scoffed, “You must be joking! I almost fell out the doors not too long ago!”

The later Doctor tugged on his ear, “Yes, well... if I recall, that was due to foul play. As the TARDIS gets older, just about every trip gets to be pretty rough.”

Rose laughed at that, “How many times did we both land on our backsides on the floor?”

“I'm sure, my dear,” said the younger Doctor, “that you'll find the two of us can manage quite a smooth trip this time, eh?” He patted her on the shoulder.

The trip was indeed quite uneventful. As they were leaving, the later Doctor shook Jamie's hand and gave Victoria a hug. Rose hugged both of them, then turned to the second Doctor. She gave him a tight hug, a mental caress and kissed him on the cheek. He looked at her in shock as they left the TARDIS and waved back at them.

“Well,” said the Doctor. “I guess, we'd best find out the date to make sure we aren't too far off from where we were aiming before we talk to anyone.”

Rose ran over to the news agent's and checked the paper. “Looks like February, 2010. A couple years off, but not bad. I'm sure the TARDIS brought us this far for a reason.”

“Let's see if we can find out what it is,” the Doctor said with a smile.


	26. While You Were Out

Chapter Twenty-Six – While You Were Out 

“I agree, my love,” said Rose. “But first, you need sleep. I can see you're about to fall over from exhaustion. Let's find ourselves a hotel room for the night first and we'll call Jack tomorrow.”

“As much as I hate leaving things unknown, at this point I will have to agree,” he answered. “I really am very tired and snuggling up with you sounds like a perfect idea.”

They made their way towards the hotel where they had stayed before when they were visiting their friends at Torchwood. Along the way, Rose noticed something terribly wrong. They passed by the area where Torchwood 3 was located. It looked like there had been extensive construction. The concrete over the whole area looked brand new and the visitor's centre that was the main entrance to the hub was replaced with shops. Knowing, however, that her husband was dead on his feet, she made the decision not to say anything about it for now. Whatever had happened, had been a while ago and didn't need to be solved this second. The Doctor didn't seem to have noticed in his current state, so she led him on towards the hotel.

It was mid afternoon here, but they had been up since before the trial. After stripping down to their underclothes, they snuggled into bed and wrapped their limbs around each other. Within minutes, they were both sleeping soundly.

About four hours later, Rose was wide awake and the Doctor was still snoring softly next to her. She didn't wake him yet, but she did start thinking about what she had seen. Something happened while they were away, something big. She could get up and start asking around, but it was probably best to wait for her husband. They were a team and while he might have gone without her before, they didn't do that anymore. Their best chance of figuring out what happened to their friends was in working together. 

They also needed to discuss whatever he had found in the Matrix. The Doctor had seemed less than happy about what he had found, but said that there was a solution. She guessed that it would have something to do with her. That was generally the only thing that would make him so upset. She decided that making sure that he was alright should be the priority. They could worry about Jack, Mickey, Martha, and the rest of them later. She needed to know what they had to do to save her husband's life first.

Her brain had been racing with these thoughts for about an hour before the Doctor began to stir. He took a deep breath through his nose and pulled Rose more tightly against him. She snuggled into his arms and kissed his neck as he slowly awoke. He hummed happily in her ear and pressed his hips against hers. So much had happened recently, they deserved a few hours to themselves. 

They removed the undergarments that they had slept in and snuggled back together as the Doctor kissed her breasts and kneaded her bum. Rose groaned and dug her fingers into his hair. Licking and sucking his way up to her neck, he positioned himself and entered her body that was wet with need for him. They made love slowly, with whispered words of adoration and devotion to each other. When they were both satisfied and sweaty, they settled back into the pillows and snuggled for a bit.

“Doctor?” Rose asked quietly as she stroked her fingers along his chest.

“Yes, love?” he said, equally quiet. The Doctor pulled her tighter against him and breathed in the scent of her hair.

“Can you tell me about what you found in the Matrix? What do we need to do? You seemed upset, so I get the feeling that it has to do with me.” Her head was on his chest but she twisted around a bit to try and see his face.

He sighed and gathered his courage for this discussion. “It does have to do with you. From what I could find, the reason I'm aging so quickly is because the meta-crisis is unstable. We should be able to stabilize it and change my biology back to being a full Time Lord, like you. There are two issues though. The first is that we will need the other Doctor to help us. And it has to be after the split. The other issue is where you are involved.” He squeezed her a little tighter and kissed her forehead before continuing, “We would need to split your regeneration energy between us. You've used one already and we may end up using the energy for another in the transfer. So, we might both end up with five left after it's all over, but even that is far better than five or six years, I suppose.”

Rose grasped his hand and entwined their fingers together. “It sounds wonderful, Doctor. We were only supposed to have one human life together and you're saying that we can have six very long lives together instead. You were only supposed to have, what one or two left before we were left in the other universe?”

“Well, I told you about my first eight lives. The eighth ended during the war. I was trying to stay out of it all really, but I couldn't stay away from it forever. They would have destroyed the universe. There was one incarnation that fought in the war. I didn't even call myself the Doctor then, I considered myself a warrior, not a healer. Then came the face that you first met, after the war. That would be my tenth life there. My eleventh looked like this, and then the split happened. So, he was on his twelfth when he left us behind, there should only be one left.” The Doctor became very quiet after that and they just held each other for a long time, listening to their breathing.

Rose finally broke the silence a few minutes later, “So, we need him to help us channel my regeneration energy into you then?”

“Yes,” he answered. “If we don't have someone else there, someone who knows both of us the way he does, then we might lose control of the transfer and you could end up giving it all to me and hurting yourself. By making sure it is equal, we make sure that our lifespans are as close as possible and our bond is safer that way.”

“Should he be able to feel us now? I'm not sure if I can feel him. I'm still not used to this telepathy thing. I know I can feel you, but I've only felt the past versions of you when they were relatively close and I've never been able to feel that thing you said about knowing if there were any other Time Lords, I don't think.” Rose's eyebrows furrowed a bit as she concentrated on her memories of the past month on Gallifrey and all the other Time Lords nearby.

“Well, you didn't grow up with telepathy or any other Time Lords, you probably just didn't recognize the feeling and since the rest of them are gone now, it doesn't matter much. It would be much harder for you to feel just him out of who knows where in the universe he might be. I can feel that he's there because I am looking for it, but he might not have noticed two Time Lord minds entering the universe. It would be a whisper in the dark and if you aren't listening, then it's nothing,” he explained as he tried to think if there would be a way to turn that whisper into a shout.

“Will he feel our bond? I know the past versions of you did, but after the split, you weren't the same man anymore, right?” 

“You know,” he frowned thoughtfully, “I'm not sure. You're right that our bond might not continue for him past the meta-crisis. It goes into my past and future, but after we separated, it might not go into his. I guess we'll find out. We've got to find him.”

“Can we call the TARDIS phone?” Rose asked.

“We can try, I never really answered it much. Used it more for calling out than anything,” he replied.

“Well, let's get cleaned up and dressed, then we can try calling the TARDIS and maybe try to get a hold of Jack and Mickey. Alright?” Rose asked while climbing out of bed.

“Hmmm... only if I get to follow you into the shower,” he said while staring at her bare bottom.

“Gotta catch me first!” She giggled and ran towards the bathroom. He growled playfully and jumped up after her.

After a playful and sudsy shower, they both dressed in clothes that Rose had packed in the bigger-on-the-inside bag from the second Doctor's TARDIS. Together, they left the hotel in search of somewhere to eat before they tried calling anyone.

They were not surprised, when they called the TARDIS, that they got the answering machine. What they were surprised about was that the voice on the recording was not that of the Doctor that had left their lives less than a year ago. 

It rang a few times before they heard a brand new voice. “Oh! Blimey! Okay, probably leave a message at the tone or something. Sorry, I wasn't really trying to do this, I was looking for the BRAKES!”

There was a beep and this Doctor left a message that he hoped he would at some point hear, “Hello, Doctor! This is well... the other Doctor. Rose and I had to come back from the other universe and things are very complicated right now. We need your help and it IS a life or death situation. I'm going to hack Rose's current cell phone and I'm sure I can get her old number working on it, so please call us as soon as you get this.” He hung up the phone and looked at Rose with trepidation.

“He's regenerated. No way of telling how long it's been for him, but we can't count on him getting that message either. Give me your phone though and I'll get it working just in case.” He took her phone from her and started sonicking it to give it universal roaming again and use the number she used to use when she travelled with him originally. By giving her universal roaming through all of time before, her number wouldn't ever have been claimed by anyone else. It was a simple matter to put it onto this phone now.

“Ok, so how are we going to find him?” Rose asked.

“To be honest, I'm not sure. I never really went out of my way to be easy to find. I suppose we can check in with UNIT, I think they usually keep an eye out for me. We could ask them to pass along a message if they happen to bump into him,” the Doctor said while scratching his head. “Only other option would be to listen for sightings or trouble that might attract him and head there ourselves.”

“Makes sense,” she sighed. “Should we try Jack or Mickey now? I should mention that I noticed something yesterday, on our way to the hotel. It looks like something might have happened at Torchwood 3.” She started leading their steps in that direction. 

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the visitor's centre was replaced with different shops and it looked like the concrete in the whole area above the hub had been replaced, it looks brand new.” Rose tugged on his hand and walked a little faster as they approached where Torchwood 3 used to be.

Looking around, the Doctor said, “I see what you mean, love. Something big definitely happened here.” He pulled out his sonic and began to scan the area. “Rose, it's gone! The ground here is solid, it's completely gone!”

“What the hell happened? Where is Jack? And Martha and Mickey?”

“This concrete is about a year old, whatever happened, it was about a year ago. Let's try asking around, if we need to, we can find a computer,” he answered.

Rose approached one of the shops and smiled at the clerk, “Hi! I was just wondering, it's been a couple of years since we came to the area, what happened to the visitor centre?”

“Oh! That was last year, during all that stuff with the kids,” she answered. “There was a bomb that went off and the whole area blew up.”

“Stuff with the kids.” Rose nodded as if she knew exactly what she was referring to. “Right. Thanks so much.”

Walking back over to where the Doctor was waiting, she passed along the information, “Apparently, last year something happened involving kids, I didn't ask for more details because it sounded like something everyone should know about. She said that a bomb went off here, I'm guessing it was in the hub if it took out the whole area.”

“Ok,” the Doctor began, “let's find a computer and find out what happened last year to the kids. Maybe that will tell us where the Torchwood team is now.”

Making their way to a nearby internet café, they did a search to find out what happened. What they saw almost made their hearts stop. Children all over the world had been taken over by aliens. The aliens wanted to abduct 10% of all of the children in the world. The government had ordered Torchwood destroyed, but ultimately, they were the ones to save the day. Jack's grandson Steven had died and Jack himself had disappeared. Ianto had died during an attack by the aliens and Gwen and her husband had disappeared. There was no mention of Mickey or Martha. Rose wrapped her arms around the Doctor's neck and began to sob uncontrollably. He rubbed her back as tears fell down his own cheeks. This was the kind of thing that he always tried to prevent. Where was the other Doctor?

They left the café after that and walked silently by the water with their arms around each other.

“Poor Jack,” Rose said finally.

“Yeah,” the Doctor responded quietly.

“He lost his grandson and Ianto,” she choked out as tears started to fall again. She couldn't imagine what that would do to her dear friend. He had already lived so long because of what she had done to him and he saved the world at the worst possible cost.

“I know, Rose. He probably left the Earth for now. This is his version of our Canary Wharf. He's going to need some time to himself. It didn't mention, Martha or Mickey. We could try to find them, if you want.” He held her close while she cried again quietly and sent feelings of love and understanding through their bond.

“Not right now. We might bump into them at some point. But I think we really need to focus on finding the other Doctor. We only have a few years before your accelerated aging is going to be a real problem and he isn't going to be easy to find.” Rose was absolutely determined that she would not lose her husband now that they knew what needed to be done.

“Alright,” he said. He could feel that she wasn't going to budge on this, no sense in even trying to argue. She wanted him safe, he understood that, especially since his life ending threatened her safety as well. “This is so frustrating, not having the TARDIS... I need a computer and we can't keep stopping places to find one.” He dragged her with him into an electronics shop.

After using the psychic paper that Rose had kept with her ever since Canary Wharf, he purchased a small laptop with funds from his UNIT account. He had never needed it before, but they had paid him for the time that he worked there. They could throw the laptop into their bigger-on-the-inside bag when they didn't need it. Backpacking across the universe was pretty much what they were doing until they could find the other Doctor again.

Using his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor soon had the computer running fast enough for him and started searching for possible sightings of the Doctor. He immediately discounted anything that he personally remembered happening and tried to narrow down the list a bit. “I usually try to avoid exactly this kind of search. Once I've read it, it makes it fixed and I hate fixed point in my own fate. But we need to find the other Doctor.”

“How are we going to make sure that these aren't future sightings of you instead of him?” Rose asked.

“Ugh, you're right,” he tugged on his ear.

“You know that you're the Doctor to me, exactly the same man. But maybe for the sake of distinguishing you from the other Doctor in this universe, we should start using something different for you?” Rose suggested. “Umm...” She smirked a bit, “how about Doctor Tyler?”

He smiled back at her, “I suppose, I could take your last name since we're married. And it wouldn't be that unusual for me to answer to just Doctor if there was a slip in our memories about it.”

“Ok, for the sake of making sure that any Doctor sightings from now on are not you, we will now introduce you as Doctor Tyler,” Rose said as she wrapped her arm around his shoulder. “So, where's our first sighting that you don't remember?”

“How about a romantic trip to Venice, my love? Around 1580?” He winked at her.

“Hmmm... sounds like a date,” she smiled back. “Too bad we don't have a wardrobe room to dress the part.”


	27. So Long and What Happened to All the Fish?

Chapter Twenty-Seven – So Long and What Happened to All the Fish?

Rose made sure to wear her long skirt and put a jacket over her blouse so that she wouldn't be considered indecent for a lady in 1580s Venice. It would have been nice to have one of the lovely dresses that the other ladies were wearing, but they didn't plan to stay long, so there was no need to go shopping... really.

“So,” she asked her husband, “just what did you read that made you think this would be a likely location?”

“There were reports of people disappearing after joining the Calvierri school. Shortly after that, there was a huge storm and earthquakes. It was said that the sky was boiling, BUT a strange man climbed to the top of the school's tower and magically stopped the storm, saving everyone,” the Doctor answered as he led her through the streets of Venice, arm in arm.

“Well, that certainly sounds like you,” she smiled at him.

“I would say it rather does,” he smiled back. “Let's see what we can find out about this Calvierri school, shall we?”

They asked several people, but discovered that the events he read about had already occurred and the strange man had disappeared. There was however a problem in the area. There weren't any fish. In a city that lived on the water, this wasn't a small problem, this could be catastrophic.

The Doctor and Rose stood at the water's edge as he scanned it with his screwdriver. “They're right, there aren't any fish in the area,” he said. “I am picking up some very unusual life sign readings though. Something is in the water, probably eating all the fish before the people can catch them.”

“Why don't we check with the fishermen and see if there is anything that they HAVE caught? Maybe they accidentally netted one of these other things?” Rose suggested.

“A brilliant idea, my lady,” he said as he got up from where he was crouching by the water. 

The fishermen had indeed been catching some very odd things in the water. They looked like odd, black crustacean things with fish-like heads and very sharp teeth. A group of men had one of them tangled in their fishing nets. They were trying to cut the corpse from the ropes to throw it back into the water with the rest of them. The Doctor took one look at the corpse and cringed.

“Saturnynes,” he said to Rose. “An infestation of Saturnynes in Venice. No wonder he came here. The Doctor must have felt that the main threat was gone when he left, but there does still seem to be a bit of a problem for us to clean up.”

“They are aliens then?” Rose asked.

“Yes, and they are a long way from home. I wonder how they got here?” 

“Well, how do we solve this little infestation then?” Rose interrupted his musings to get to the heart of the problem. “Do they have a weakness, these Saturnynes?”

“Sunlight, specifically ultraviolet light. The water filters enough of it out that they are fine as long as they stay underwater, but too much of it and they dissolve.” He thought for a moment before suggesting a solution, “We could rig up some UV lights to the bottom of the fishing boats. Then, as they sail around, they should get most of them in the area. At least enough that they wouldn't threaten the fish population anymore.”

“Could they just come back stronger with no natural predators here?” Rose asked to make sure this plan was foolproof. 

“I don't think so. There probably aren't enough of them to sustain a solid gene pool and repopulate,” he answered.

“Alright, let's get to it then, Sir Doctor,” she said as she took her husband's arm once more.

“Absolutely, Dame Rose.” He smiled at her brightly as they began their search for supplies.

Using some bits and bobs from his pockets and a few mirrors and prisms that he was able to acquire in the area, he managed to put together enough light magnifying devices for several fishing boats. He informed the fishermen to keep these attached to their boats for several weeks and travel their regular fishing areas as thoroughly as possible to be sure that the infestation was gone.

“Well,” said the Doctor as they strolled leisurely down the streets once more. “Not one of our more exciting trips, but we know that he was here. Fancy some dinner before we leave?”

“Certainly, love,” she replied. “We may not have had the chance to climb up the tower dramatically, but we did help these people. That's what we do and what we will always do. Where are we headed after dinner, then?”

“What would you say to another planet? I certainly can't look him up for those trips with the computer on Earth, but we might run across some sign of him. And there just so happens to be a planet that I think you'll like very much. Our research with Jack brought my attention to it. How would you like to see real flying fish?” He wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulders and they grinned goofily at each other.

“More fish?” she laughed. “Sure, why not.”

They sat together and watched the sunset after dinner, before they left for their next adventure. It really was a lovely and romantic place to just enjoy being together.

“I'm curious, Rose,” the Doctor said. “How much did the court room see towards the end on the screen?”

“Umm.. well,” she thought for a moment. “You and Mel had just discovered the hit list for all the Time Lords that were in the court room when the Master took over the screen to threaten his take-over as the old High Council fell apart. That's about when Mel ran in to tell us to disconnect the Matrix screen.”

“What?!” he said in shock. “That was our best bit of acting! You missed it all! Oh, we were so melodramatic, it was fantastic and nobody saw it at all.”

Rose laughed and gave him a hug. Her husband really was a bit of a clown, whether he continued to dress like one or not. Her thoughts turned to the other Doctor now, “I'm curious about something too, Doctor. How do you think of the other Doctor? The one after the split. Is he like a brother or something, or is he still you in a way?”

“Oooh,” he thought as he took a breath in through his teeth. “That's a tough question really. We were the same man for close to a thousand years. I think it would take a lot for us to diverge drastically from each other. Our moral code and values have been fairly set for a long time now. Did you find the past versions of me to be very different from me now?”

“Well, the second you, maybe. You seemed a little less sure of yourself? Or maybe just a little less sure of your companions perhaps?” Rose replied.

He nodded, “Yes, probably true on both counts. I was much younger then, only about 450 Earth years old.”

“God! I must seem like a baby to you. I probably would be on Gallifrey, wouldn't I?”

“Don't say that, love,” he took her hands and looked into her eyes. “I was a grandfather before I ever left Gallifrey. I had already lived what humans would consider an incredibly long life before I even left the planet. But my experiences with humans changed me. Having a shorter lifespan gives humans a spark and a lust for living life to the fullest that awakened my wanderlust. I haven't been able to stop moving since. You are an adult in the society in which you were raised. By human standards, you are in the prime of your life and that means that your mental maturity makes you an adult. You are my wife, I love you and you are not a baby or a child.”

She kissed him and he returned it passionately. She knew that she had hundreds of years ahead of her, now that she was a Time Lord. It was daunting, the idea that her life so far would be such a small portion of her life in total. Would she even remember her mother in two hundred years?

She didn't want to break their kiss, so she asked him mentally, ~'Will I forget my mother?'~

He could feel her hearts breaking at the thought, ~'No, my love. Of course not. For one thing, your mental capabilities now will make it easier to remember much more detail for a very long time. It is necessary for a race that is as long lived as mine. It might be harder to remember her voice or her scent exactly in four or five hundred years, but you will never forget your mother. She will be burned onto your hearts forever. Just like you will be burned onto the other Doctor's hearts forever.'~

~'You didn't really answer my question earlier, about how you think of the other Doctor.'~

~'That's because I'm not entirely sure myself. He's more than a twin brother. We literally were the same man for almost a thousand Gallifreyan years. Just so you know, a Gallifreyan year is almost twice as long as a human one.'~

Rose started giggling then and broke their kissing. He scowled at her a bit but there was no heat in it really. He was the one that brought about the issue himself when he had told her he was 900 to begin with.

“Will he still love me when we see him again, then?” Rose asked when she stopped laughing.

“Without a doubt,” he said as he looked at the darkening sky.

“And how do you feel about that? I've told you before, YOU are my husband, not him,” Rose said as she rested her head on his shoulder.

“Well, I can't blame him for his feelings for you. We were the same man when we fell in love with you. Just because he didn't stay after the split, doesn't mean he could ever stop loving you. But what that could mean for our future, I don't know. Would he be able to watch us together from a distance without pushing us out of his life to save his hearts? Would we be willing to let him into our lives as closely as he might want to be, if he could get over forever punishing himself as he usually does?” 

The Doctor pondered what kind of relationship he wanted with his other self. Did he want to stay away from him after they solved their little problem? Did he want a brotherly relationship? Could he learn to share his wife with the other man who loved her just as deeply as he did, if she wanted, in the future? Would Rose want that? While that kind of relationship was unusual by human standards in Rose's time, it certainly wasn't unheard of in most of the universe.

“He'll probably try to push us away,” Rose said sadly.

“Yes, he probably will,” he replied, squeezing her shoulder. “The question is, will we let him and what do we want? I know I'd prefer to travel on the TARDIS. We are both bonded with her just as much as he is and travelling by vortex manipulator isn't the way I like to travel. Hotels and backpacks (even bigger-on-the-inside ones) are not the way I've lived my life.”

“I'd like to be on the TARDIS too. As for what kind of relationship I think we should have with him, I think he is family at least. What he wants to share with us will depend on how he treats us. I love him, of course, but if he wants my hearts, he will have to earn them back,” Rose decided.

“I understand, love. I'm not sure whether I could share you or not. Even with myself.”

The sky had turned dark and in the ancient sky, not spoiled by modern light pollution, the stars called out to them. They were never meant to be planet bound, they were the stuff of legend and they belonged out there.


	28. Real Snow!

Chapter Twenty-Eight – Real Snow!

Rose and the Doctor were dressed warmly in long coats as they walked down the dirt road, arm in arm. It was snowing lightly and they watched little schools of fish swimming through the air.

“So, where are we?” Rose asked her husband.

“It's called Sardicktown and we are here during what they call the Crystal Feast. It's their version of Christmas. It was settled by humans from Earth about, oh ... a hundred years ago or so,” he answered.

The people were dressed in a very old fashioned style and the children were playing in the snow as if they had never seen it before. Rose and the Doctor decided to make a snowman together. When they were done, they looked down the road and saw a very similar snowman. As they approached it, they saw that there were a whole line of them going further down the street. They followed them and counted twenty of them.

“I guess they really like snowmen around here,” said Rose.

Both of their eyes grew wide as they heard a very familiar sound. They ran towards it just in time to see the TARDIS dematerialize from Sardicktown and leave a dark square on the ground where the snow had not fallen. Their hearts sank at the missed chance.

“Why didn't we feel that he and the TARDIS were here, love?” Rose asked.

“I don't know,” his brow furrowed in thought. “We should have at least heard the TARDIS' singing. Unless she's blocking us for some reason? If she thought that it wasn't the right time for us to meet up with him?”

“But, doesn't she know how important it is for you?” Rose was almost crying at the thought of being too late to save her husband's life. “What if we run out of time before we find him?”

The Doctor held Rose tightly in his arms. “Shh, love. It'll be alright. The TARDIS still loves us, she seems to have some kind of idea of when we should be finding him or she wouldn't be shielding us now. She won't let us die like that, I'm sure of it.”

As she was calming down from her worry, they saw a carriage flying overhead while being pulled by a flying shark. They looked at each other and back towards the strange sight. Laughing uproariously, they were sure that the other Doctor had something to do with setting that up and decided that they needed to talk to the people in that carriage.

The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver in the direction of the carriage to get a lock on it to follow. What he found was very surprising indeed. “Rose! There is a sonic signal coming from that shark! It's like there is some sonic technology inside it or attached to it. What in the world was he doing when he was here?”

It took them well over an hour to track down the carriage on the ground when it finally landed. What they found was an elderly gentleman looking lovingly at a young blonde woman as they released the shark from the carriage.

“Hello,” said the Doctor. “I'm Doctor Tyler and this is my wife, Rose. Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas,” said the young woman. “My name is Abigail and this is Kazran.”

“It's a pleasure to meet you,” Rose smiled broadly at the strange couple. “We were wondering if you could help us. We're trying to find the Doctor. I have a feeling you may have met him.”

“I'm sorry,” replied Kazran. “You've missed him, I'm sure he's gone.”

“Yes,” said Doctor Tyler. “We saw the TARDIS leave, but could you tell us what happened when he was here? It might give us a clue about where we might find him next.”

Kazran put an arm around Abigail's shoulders and she wrapped an arm around his waist. He seemed to consider for a moment how to explain it all, “I suppose, it started when a ship was caught in the cloud layer and about to crash. 4003 people were on board and I wouldn't release my control on the clouds to allow the ship through. Then he changed my whole life.”

Rose smiled warmly at her husband. Yup, that was definitely what happened when you met the Doctor.

“It's still so strange to remember my life both ways. He went back to when I was twelve years old and changed everything. Every Christmas from then until I was nineteen, he came back and we took Abigail out of her frozen prison for one night,” Kazran explained.

Abigail smiled at him warmly. She seemed to be thinking fondly of all of those events and a tear fell down her cheek.

“But Abigail only had days left to her life and when the countdown reached one last day, I couldn't bear to take her out again. He told me it was better to have a broken heart than no heart at all. I couldn't stand it though. How could I pick what day would be her last? I challenged him to that very thing. I told him, 'one last day with your beloved. Which day would you choose?' He looked like he understood all too well.” Kazran held Abigail tightly as he thought about the fact that this was her last day with him.

Abigail was the one to continue the story now, “The ship landed safely and he left to find his friends as we took one more ride with the shark that brought us together so many years ago. I don't know how that could help you know where he would be going next. He took us many places over the Christmas Eves together, but he never said anything about his friends or where he would be going after his time with us.”

“Could you describe him to us please?” Rose wondered, “We haven't seen him in a long time and a description of him now might help us look for him.”

“Certainly,” Kazran answered. “He seemed so young though, it couldn't have been that long ago that you knew him. He wore a brown, tweed coat and a bow tie with a white shirt and red braces.”

“You saw him a lot through your life,” Doctor Tyler began, “I don't suppose you would have a photo of him, would you?”

“Why, yes actually!” Kazran reached into his pocket and pulled out several photos. He looked through them carefully until he found one of the three of them together on one of their trips. “Here, you can keep this one. I do hope it helps you, Doctor Tyler.”

“Thank you, that helps immensely!” Doctor Tyler answered.

“Yes, thank you so much,” Rose said and hugged them both. “Merry Christmas again!”

The couple held each other close and walked off to enjoy their time together.

Rose could feel her heart breaking for them. One last day. She wouldn't allow it to happen. “Doctor? What's the matter with her? Why is she dying?”

He pulled out his screwdriver and scanned her as they were walking away. The Doctor looked closely at the results and frowned. “Nasty genetic disorder, it's breaking down her cellular structure. I can't stop it.”

“There has to be something we can do, Doctor,” Rose pleaded with her husband.

“I might be able to slow it down a bit. Give her some more time, but I'd need some supplies,” he said as he ran a hand through his disorderly mop of hair.

Rose ran to catch up with them. “Wait! Abigail! Wait just a minute!” She called.

When they turned around, she smiled and happily told them, “We can help. My husband said he might be able to give you some more time.”

Doctor Tyler caught up with them and explained what he would need. Kazran had access to anything on the planet of course, so they went back to the mansion to get to work. While her husband was working on helping to slow Abigail's condition, Kazran showed Rose the rest of the photos from his time spent with the Doctor. Rose smiled at this new face. It certainly did look young and from the stories Kazran told, he could have a lot of fun in the places they went. Knowing that this was the Doctor though, Rose could see the sadness hidden in his eyes. He was helping this love story along while knowing that he gave up his chance at that very thing. The thought of it almost broke her hearts. When they did find him again, they couldn't let him go on alone. She still wasn't sure what kind of relationship that would mean between the three of them, but he needed her. He needed both of them.

In the end, Doctor Tyler was able to give Abigail almost a year before her condition would kill her. And a year was far better than a day. Both Kazran and Abigail were crying happy tears as they said goodbye to Doctor and Rose Tyler.

“Thank you, Doctor,” Rose said as she squeezed his hand.

“No, Rose. Thank YOU,” he answered. “It didn't occur to the other Doctor and it wouldn't have occurred to me if you hadn't said anything. They said she was dying and we just accepted it. But not you. You're always looking for a way to solve what everyone says is impossible.”

“They deserved more than one last day,” Rose smiled sadly. After a moment, she added, “And so does the other Doctor. Kazran showed me the pictures. I could see it in his eyes, love. He's so sad. He is burying it, but I can see it.” She sent him the memories of the photos she saw.

“You're right. If we could find out who his new companions are, we might be able to figure out where he would take them for visits home to family. If they have any family that is. You know, I never used to do that for my companions. It was always, you're with me or you're out. After losing everyone in the war though, I did it for you and Martha and Donna.”

“Family is important,” she said. “But I think it's good for you too. It gives you a bit of a home base to stop and take a breather now and then. We don't really have that right now, do we?”

“No,” he said as he held her closer while they walked down the snowy street. “I had hoped that our base would be going back to Jack and Martha, but now that they've disappeared, we're just pressing on towards finding the TARDIS. This photo will help. I can program it into my computer with a facial recognition program to look for him in something other than just mentions of odd situations.”

“He looks very young this time,” Rose commented.

“He certainly does! I don't think I've ever looked that young since I was a child. None of my regenerations have been that young looking. The fashion sense is a bit unfortunate again,” he frowned.

Rose laughed, “Oh, it's not THAT bad. And his face is handsome. Doesn't compare with this one though.” She smiled at him and he kissed her sweetly.

“Do you want to stay here a while longer, love? Or should we go back to Earth and search for him some more?” He hated to leave a problem unsolved, but if Rose wanted to stay and enjoy being on another planet again, he would do whatever she wished.

“As lovely as it is to see real snow for a change,” she smiled. “I don't want to stop our search. We can't see the stars here anyway with all the fish filled clouds.”

“Your wish is my command, love...”

“Hang on!” Rose interrupted, grabbing her husband's arm. “Did he come back? I feel another you here, Doctor!”

He reached his mind out towards the TARDIS and felt something this time. But this wasn't the future TARDIS, this was from the past. “It isn't the new Doctor, love, it's a past version of me here. Let's see if we can find him.”


	29. Dressed to Impress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> probably NSFW

Chapter Twenty-Nine – Dressed to Impress

Rose decided to practise following his mental signal. She hadn't needed to with her husband yet. So using it to find the past Doctor that was here in Sardicktown was a good exercise for her new telepathic abilities.

She knew that he could sense her and she could feel a playfulness about this Doctor. It gave her the idea to make this a bit of a game. She thought to him, ~'I'm going to find you!'~ And she felt a surprised giggle from him.

“He knows we're looking for him, love,” she told her husband.

“Oh really? Having a little chat?” He winked at her. He had a terrible feeling that he knew which of his previous selves might come here. This was a meeting he was hoping to avoid.

“Maybe,” Rose smirked at him as she led the way around a few corners. She slowed down as she sensed they were getting closer and started looking around for a familiar face.

Suddenly, someone grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into a dark alleyway. She held tight to her husband's hand and pulled him along with her as he gave a startled, “Oi!”

Rose found herself face to face with gray-blue eyes and a mischievous grin.

“I found you first,” he said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Doctor Tyler groaned, “Oh, I knew it would be you!”

The eighth Doctor laughed at his future self and Rose giggled.

“You told me you'd never been here before, love,” Rose said to her husband.

“Well, I don't remember coming here, obviously. It would be this me of course, given the dress code on this planet.” Doctor Tyler pouted adorably.

Rose ruffled his hair and then turned to the other Doctor. “I have wanted to meet this you,” she smiled and received that mischievous grin again. “I'm Rose, by the way, Doctor.”

He kissed the back of her hand, “Absolutely enchanted, my dear. You are the loveliest creature I've ever laid eyes on and I find myself quite jealous of my future.” He winked at the future Doctor. “I was just doing a little exploring. What brings the two of you here?”

“Well,” said Doctor Tyler as he felt he'd been quiet far too long. “We were actually just exploring as well, to begin with, but managed to solve a little trouble while we were here. Jeopardy friendly, this one,” he continued while gesturing to his wife. “Always bound to find trouble with her around.”

“I thought you had abandoned that title for, Sagacity?” Rose countered with her hands on her hips.

The eighth Doctor smirked, but then looked at her thoughtfully. “That...? You seem familiar to me. Sagacity? Why does that make me think of someone?”

“Ah,” said Doctor Tyler, “it's a little bit early to remember that just yet. Though I suppose the memory will suppress itself in your mind again since I don't even remember coming here. We recently went through a little charade with our sixth self. Rose was the Lady Inquisitor for the trial.”

They saw the eighth Doctor's eyes go wide as the whole memory temporarily unlocked for him. “Oh my dear girl!” He hugged Rose tightly, “You were amazing!”

Rose hugged him back and enjoyed the feeling of his soft coat against her cheek. She couldn't help but run her hand through his soft curls while she was there and he purred at the contact.

“Oi! Rose, we did talk about this, didn't we?” her husband said, jealousy evident in his tone.

“Yes, we did,” she smiled. “And I told you that I loved the curls.” The Doctor in her arms chuckled and lifted her to spin her around once before placing her back on the ground in front of her husband.

“Did you find the information you needed in the Matrix back then?” he asked the future Doctor.

“Yes, I did. But,” he said as he ruffled his own hair, “we need the help of the other me after the meta-crisis split. And unfortunately, we just missed him here. I seem to be quite proficient at accidentally bumping into my past selves, but purposefully finding my counterpart is proving to be quite difficult.”

“Indeed,” said the younger Doctor, “can I give you a lift somewhere?”

“No, thank you, Doctor,” Rose said. “We have transport this time.” She motioned to the vortex manipulator on her husband's wrist and both Doctors cringed at it a bit.

“Alright, since I'm going to apparently forget this whole trip anyway, there's no sense in hanging around after we part ways. It was an absolute pleasure to meet you again, Rose. Especially as I get closer to meeting you in the proper time stream.” The eighth Doctor took her hand to kiss it again and Rose looked questioningly at her husband.

Doctor Tyler sighed mightily, “Oh, alright.” He turned to walk towards the alley's entrance.

Rose took the given opportunity eagerly and snogged the past Doctor into breathlessness. By the time Rose released him, his curls were a mess, his eyes glassy and his mouth hung open dazedly. She smirked at him and licked her lips to savour the taste of him a little longer.

“Well....” he said in shock.

“Until we meet again, Doctor.” Rose smiled and joined her husband as they walked away.

When they were a block or so away from the eighth Doctor, her husband spoke again, “Now that we've survived that dreaded meeting, are we still headed back towards Earth to search for the other Doctor, love?”

“Certainly, Doctor,” Rose replied. “And don't be too jealous of your past self. He was too shocked to kiss me back and it's much more satisfying when it's reciprocated.” She winked at him saucily and he took that as an invitation to pull her into another alley. 

Pressing her into the wall, he kissed her fiercely. Rose dug her fingers into his messy locks of hair and groaned into his mouth. The Doctor ground his hips against hers and took a moment to look around them. Judging their visibility, he picked her up by her bum and took her a little further into the alley. He sat her on the edge of a pile of boxes, happy that she had worn a skirt today.

Rose gasped as her husband dove under her long coat and skirt as he tugged her hips a little closer to the edge of her seat. She felt him pull her knickers out of the way and had to lean back on her hands as he began to lick and suck at her clit. He roughly pushed two fingers into her and began to quickly rub at just the right spot inside her. This was meant to be fast, she could tell and at the rate he was going, it certainly would be. 

In no time at all, Rose was calling out his name and he quickly stood up to block her cries with his kiss while keeping his fingers inside her. Rose groaned at the taste of herself on his mouth and tangled her tongue with his. She reached to palm the front of his trousers, but he pulled away.

“No, love. That was for you,” he said as he looked lovingly into her eyes in the dim light of the alley. “Impressive enough to stick with this version of me for now?”

Rose laughed and put her hands on each side of his face as she kissed him once more. “Absolutely, my husband. You won't be getting rid of me.”

“Good,” he said smugly, “Now, where were we? Ah, yes, back to Earth, a little after we left it and maybe we'll head towards UNIT headquarters and see what they can tell us.” The Doctor programmed their vortex manipulator and held his wife tightly to him as she placed her hand on the device. In a flash, they left Sardicktown with best wishes towards Kazran and Abigail, that they would enjoy the extra time they managed to give them.


	30. A Family UNIT

Chapter Thirty – A Family UNIT

Finding themselves back in London, Rose and the Doctor packed away their winter coats into the bigger-on-the-inside bag that Rose carried. The Doctor took her hand and led her towards UNIT headquarters which was located under the Tower of London.

When they entered the building, he went straight for the young person sitting behind the desk in a dark coloured uniform and looking particularly nervous. “Hello! I'm the Doctor.” The boy's eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open. “I don't suppose I could speak with whomever is in charge around here now?”

Since the young man was likely to continue gaping like a fish for some time, Rose decided to intervene. Leaning over the desk to shake his hand, Rose said, “Hi, I'm Rose. We could really use your help in getting a hold of one of your superiors. Can you do that for us?”

He nodded dumbly as he reached for the phone on the desk in front of him. “Captain, umm... the Doctor is here to see you,” he said nervously. There was some talking on the other end of the phone before he replied, “Yes, ma'am.” Upon hanging up the receiver, he led them down the hallways towards what they presumed was the Captain's office.

When they entered the room, Captain Magambo stood from behind her desk and rose to shake the Doctor's hand. “Doctor, it's good to see you again. Although, you don't usually make house calls, should I sound the alarm?”

Rose was looking at her in a bit of shock, “Captain Magambo?” 

“I'm sorry, have we met, miss?” She asked.

“Have WE met?” The Doctor asked the Captain.

“Of course we have, Doctor,” Captain Magambo replied. “Last year, when that worm hole opened up and those metal things came flying out.”

“Right, well... There is a bit of a situation, but it isn't one to raise the alarm about. But before we get to that, Rose? Are you alright, love?” He was a little worried that she was still shaking off her shock at seeing this woman.

“Yes! Yes, I'm fine,” she answered as she regained her composure. “I, um.. I worked with the Captain in that parallel universe that was created around Donna. When she had that beetle on her back.”

“When was this?” asked the Captain.

“Oh! I see,” he gave her a fierce hug to ease her swirling emotions. She had seen him die during that time and had to build her own time machine to help Donna break free of the time beetle's control. “You wouldn't remember it, Captain. That timeline collapsed. This is Rose, by the way. She's my lovely wife.”

Captain Magambo's eyes widened at that. 

“Right, husband, I think you'd best explain to her why you don't know anything about that worm hole incident last year,” Rose said as she tried to turn his attention back to the reason they came here to begin with.

“What?” The Doctor was confused for a moment at the change of subject, but quickly got back on track, “Oh yes! Of course. Well, the Doctor that helped you with that situation, wasn't exactly me. I mean it was the Doctor and I'm the Doctor, but the last time I was involved with anything that UNIT would have been around for was when the Daleks had moved the entire planet in 2008. During that little adventure, there was a bit of an accident that created a split and from that point, there were two Doctors. So, you see that was me, but it wasn't THIS me.”

The Captain continued staring dumbly for a moment as she processed the information she was just given. “Right,” she said when she could focus again on what was happening. “Were you involved in the trouble with the Master last Christmas then?”

“The Master?!?” Rose and the Doctor both shouted simultaneously.

“I'll take that as a, no. No one remembers it, but based on recorded TV footage, we believe he somehow turned everyone on the planet into him temporarily. When we all woke up from it, there was a giant red planet in the sky. It disappeared before the gravitational stresses started earthquakes, but the tides were a bit of a mess. I presume it was your counterpart that fixed the problem then and we've heard nothing of the Master since then,” she explained.

Both Rose and her husband relaxed a little when they heard that the Master seemed to be gone again (for now). How many times could this one planet come to the brink of disaster in only a couple of years, he wondered.

“Ok,” sighed the Doctor. “We are trying to get a hold of the other Doctor. It seems he has regenerated again and looks like this now.” He showed her the photo they had gotten from Kazran.

“Right,” the Captain replied. “We have a few recorded sightings of that one.”

“Do you know who he's travelling with?” Rose asked. “It might give us some idea where to look for him.”

“All we know is that the girl he's been seen with has long red hair and answers to the name, Amy. We don't have a last name for her at all, but there was an incident with an Atraxi ship where he was first sighted with that face in Leadworth, a few months after the incident with the Master,” the Captain answered.

“Alright,” the Doctor said as he ran his hands through his hair. “Leadworth, well... that's one place to start anyway. Thank you, Captain. If you should happen to bump into him at some point, could you tell him that we are looking for him? It's really very important.”

“Certainly, Doctor,” she said. In a sudden whirl of motion, the Doctor was running out the door, tugging Rose behind him by the hand. 

Before they left UNIT, however, the Doctor asked one more question of the young man at the desk, “Would you happen to know where I might find Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart?”

“He is currently in Peru, sir,” the young man answered. He seemed slightly less nervous towards the Doctor now that he had some time to absorb the idea that he had just met THE Doctor. “I can get you the address.”

“Thank you, that would be very helpful,” Rose said, smiling sweetly. She recalled that name as her husband's friend from his third incarnation while he was stranded on Earth. She knew he didn't usually visit old friends. He had told her before that as long as they were alive and happy when he left them, they would always be alive and happy in his mind. “Are we going for a visit?”

“Well,” he said while rubbing the back of his neck. “I'd kind of like to ... introduce you.” He was blushing now and Rose giggled at him. She had met his brother and his mum, but he was blushing about wanting her to meet his old friend?

“Alright, I'd love a trip to Peru,” she said as she took his arm.

They arrived via vortex manipulator, on the road outside a lovely little house near Lima. The Brigadier was apparently working with the UN while he was here. They walked up to the door arm-in-arm and the Doctor knocked loudly. They were greeted shortly by a friendly looking, elderly man and the Doctor smiled brightly at him.

“Alistair!” He shouted as he released Rose's arm and hugged the shocked man tightly.

“I beg your pardon?” Lethbridge-Stewart said as he removed himself from the grip of the Doctor.

“It's me, of course! The Doctor.”

“Ah, of course, Doctor. Who else would give me a greeting like that when I've never seen their face before in my life?” he ushered the couple inside to sit down.

Rose shook his hand, “I'm Rose, Rose Tyler. It's a pleasure to meet you, Brigadier.”

“Oh, call me Alistair, please. I'm supposed to be retired, although I'm sure that will never really happen.”

“Retired? Oh, that's too boring for people like us, Alistair!” The Doctor was roaming the room and looking at all of the mementos on the shelves. 

“So, Doctor,” Alistair began. “What brings you to Peru of all places?”

“Actually,” he was rubbing his neck and tugging on his ear again. Rose smiled at how cute he was when he was nervous. “I wanted you to meet my wife,” he finally said while blushing brightly.

With raised eyebrows, Alistair looked back and forth between the Doctor and Rose. After a moment, he smiled at his friend and nodded. “And why wasn't I invited to the wedding?”

“Well,” Rose jumped in, “it was in another universe. Made it a bit difficult to get everyone together.” She winked at Alistair.

“Yes, I think it rather would,” Alistair responded. “Why don't I make some tea and you can tell me all about it?”

“Thank you, Alistair. That would be lovely,” Rose said graciously.

They had a very pleasant visit with him. The Doctor explained about the meta-crisis split and their escape from the other universe. He said that while it was unlikely that the other Doctor would come by for a visit, if he should see him, to let him know they were looking for him. Alistair told them about Doris and Kate as well as his recent adventure with Sarah Jane back in England. When it was getting late in the day, they said their goodbyes and Rose gave Alistair a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Walking from his house, they decided to spend a little time in Peru before determining where to go next. They found a little hotel where they would spend the night and planned to explore some of the ancient ruins the next day. 

They started out bright and early and of course, managed to find some trouble to solve. There was a Graske causing a ruckus nearby stealing llamas, but they put a stop to it and sent him on his way.

They stopped to lay in the grass for a bit and enjoyed the bright sunshine. “Where shall we try next, Doctor? Should we go to Leadworth to find out more about this ginger companion of his?” Rose asked.

“We could do that, or I could run that photo through a facial recognition program. This is all very frustrating. I know I've never been easy to get a hold of, but this is really ridiculous. I should be able to find myself.” He watched the clouds floating in the sky as he pondered what to try next.

Rose entwined their fingers as she took his hand and snuggled closer to his side. “We've tried calling the TARDIS phone. Is there a way we can call the TARDIS herself, since we're both bonded to her? Or telepathically call the Doctor?”

“It's a very good idea, love, but we would have to be relatively close for that. Those bonds are just the surface level ones like I told you about before we bonded. We would have to be touching them for speech and only strong emotions would come across. I'm not even sure the Doctor would notice us in that way. We aren't really bonded to him at all. He should be able to feel the presence of Time Lord minds if the TARDIS isn't interfering, but last time she seemed to be blocking us.” He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb as he thought about it.

“But the TARDIS knows we're here and we are bonded with her. Could we talk to her somehow? Or call her to us?” Rose was sure there had to be something to this idea.

“I'm not sure, really. Even when I was with her, our communication was more images and feelings than real talking. She seems to have some kind of idea of when we should be meeting the other Doctor if she is blocking him from us for now. I hate it when she thinks she knows best,” he huffed frustratedly.

Rose giggled, “She probably does know best most of the time. But I will have to agree that in this particular case, I would prefer if she would help us rather than block us.” Rose tried to reach out her mind towards the TARDIS, but only got the sense that she was out there somewhere without any real sense of where.

“Why don't we skip ahead a bit and I'll run my facial recognition on that photo to see if we can find a good place to jump back and catch him?” He sent her a mental caress as he felt her frustration at not being able to mentally connect with the TARDIS. He had been trying that too from time to time, without any luck.

“You know what?” Rose said thoughtfully. “Why don't we continue with our little break and do something in the past instead?”

“Your wish, is my command, my love. Where would you like to go?” He asked.

Rose thought for a moment. “I think I want to go to a concert. And goodness, my tastes have changed. I think I want to see Elton John.”

The Doctor smiled at her, “Alright, Elton John it is. London, say around 1970?”

“It's a date!”


	31. Concerts and Capes

Chapter Thirty-One – Concerts and Capes

 

Rose looked around eagerly as she took in the slight differences of London before she was born. The fashions of the 1970s were different, but her long skirt and blouse and her husband's suit didn't look out of place as they wandered the streets hand-in-hand.

“We have some time before the concert, my love. How about some chips?” The Doctor smiled at her enthusiasm. He loved taking her to see fun things like this. They had eventually made it to that Ian Drury concert after the mess with the werewolf. Although, they never did quite get to see Elvis.

Rose grinned happily, “Chips sound wonderful!” She swung their hands back and forth as they made their way to the chip shop.

They were eating and chatting contentedly about some of the things that the Doctor had done during the 1970s when Rose felt a familiar tickle in her mind. The past Doctor that was on Earth right now had felt her presence and was heading towards them.

“We're going to have company, love,” Rose said while rolling her eyes.

“Again?” he sounded exasperated. “Why is it that we can run into just about every past version of me in existence, but we can't find the future one to literally save our lives?”

They cleaned up the wrappers from their lunch and went outside to face the inevitable. Rose could feel him getting closer and pulled her husband towards a nearby park where they could all sit comfortably. Doctor Tyler spread out his long coat on the grass and they both snuggled together to wait for the past Doctor. He had managed to find a coat that was quite similar to the one he had before, even if this one didn't come from Janis Joplin.

A few minutes later, a tall shadow blocked the sun where they were sitting and Rose smiled up at the caped figure of the third Doctor. Standing a little bit behind him was an impatient looking Liz Shaw. Rose remembered him showing her some memories of their adventures with UNIT when he was first stranded here.

“Doctor,” Liz sighed. “I thought we were going to meet the Brigadier?”

“In a little while, Liz,” the third Doctor replied. “Something important seems to have come up. Or should I say someONE important?” He smiled down at Rose and she returned the smile with one of her own.

“Won't you join us, Doctor? Liz?” Rose invited them.

The third Doctor spread his cape on the ground, much as Doctor Tyler had done with his coat. And he gestured for Liz to join him in sitting the way Rose and her husband were arranged. Well, with perhaps a little more space between himself and Liz.

“Sorry if we interrupted anything important,” Doctor Tyler said to Liz.

“Oh, nothing that can't wait until later,” the third Doctor said, waving his hand as if the universe would wait on his whims. “What brings you here today, miss...?”

“Tyler,” Rose beamed at him, “Rose Tyler. And we came to see the Elton John concert tonight.”

Liz gaped at the Doctor seated next to her. “You came searching for them out of nowhere and you didn't even know her name?”

He chuckled at her comment, but couldn't take his eyes off of Rose. “Ah, Liz. My people are telepathic, I felt her in my mind. You know that I can change my face, the Brigadier told you that. He is me,” he said as he gestured to the other Doctor. “And she will be my wife.”

Rose offered her hand to Liz in greeting, “It's a pleasure to meet you, Liz. He's spoken quite fondly of you.” She nodded to her husband.

“It has been quite a while,” Doctor Tyler said, smiling broadly. “When are you now?”

“Ooh, quite early for this life,” the third Doctor replied. “We just finished dealing with the Autons not too long ago.”

“Ah! Rose, you know all about Autons! That's how we met.” He grinned at her like a lovesick fool and she ruffled his hair.

“Of course, he saves me from shop window dummies, then blows up the whole building,” Rose said as she rolled her eyes at his capacity for destroying things.

“Good gracious!” Liz exclaimed, “I hope no one was hurt.”

“Nah,” Doctor Tyler said. “After hours, she was the last one in the building. The place was filled with Autons and there was a relay on the roof to spread the signal further. She helped me find where the Nestene Consciousness was hiding and with a little bit of anti-plastic, that was the end of that.”

“Well, at least he wasn't being strangled by tentacles from the Nestene while you were with him,” Liz said.

“No,” Rose smiled knowingly. “He was about to get thrown into a pit of Nestene goo by one of the Autons until I swung in like Tarzan and saved him.” She winked at her husband and he gave a rather unmanly giggle. “We're always saving each other. When I'm not saving the universe by building Dimension Cannons to shoot myself across the Void.”

Doctor Tyler hugged her tightly in remembrance of their time apart and what could have happened to her. The third Doctor raised his eyebrows at this. His future wife was apparently brave, strong and highly intelligent. He sent her his feelings of pride and awe at his future. She returned his gesture with a mental kiss that had him blushing. Luckily, her husband didn't notice his past self's face turning pink.

Just then, the ground beneath them began to shake. “An earthquake?” asked Liz.

Doctor Tyler exchanged a look with the other Doctor and said, “I sincerely doubt it.” He took out his sonic screwdriver and started scanning the ground around them.

The third Doctor raised an eyebrow curiously at the device and stood up to survey the area. The shaking appeared to be limited to the park, but he couldn't see what might be causing it.

Doctor Tyler checked the readings on his sonic and growled frustratedly, “Alpha Centauran Ground Worms. Can't we go anywhere without there being an invasion, Rose?”

“Nope,” she replied with a teasing smile.

“You found that out with your sonic screwdriver? I think it's time for an upgrade,” the third Doctor said as he looked hungrily at the device.

“Focus, Doctor,” Rose interrupted. “How do we stop them? We can't have an infestation of a non-indigenous species in a London park. They have no natural predators here.”

Doctor Tyler waggled his eyebrows at her, “I love it when you talk all sciencey.”  
“Alright, that's enough of that,” the third Doctor said. If he couldn't drool over the future Doctor's sonic, then they didn't have time for either of them to be drooling over Rose's genius. “If we can set up a sound wave at the right frequency reverberating through the ground. It should kill them off. We'll need to find out where the meteorite that brought them here fell or we might miss some of them.”

“So, we need to find a meteorite and we need to build something to make a sound wave that can be transmitted through the ground. There's four of us, who's doing what?” Rose asked.

“Liz has specialized in studying meteorites and I've got the sonic to scan for the right minerals. I'll take Liz with me to look for the meteorite,” Doctor Tyler decided. “Rose, you're excellent at building electronics as you proved with the Dimension Cannon, so you stay with younger me and work on building something to kill off the infestation.”

The third Doctor looked like Christmas had come early as he said, “We'll need parts. I'll take Rose to UNIT HQ and meet you back here in two hours.” He took Rose's hand and walked her towards where he had parked Bessie.

During the drive, the Doctor tried to ask Rose about everything - from what she studied at the Academy, to the name of her House. She expertly dodged every question. “I know you'll have to forget all of this again anyway, Doctor, but it's all very complicated. I think it would be best if we left all of those explanations for another time. In fact, I just finished telling the whole story to your sixth incarnation recently. I'd rather not explain the entire story to every version of you that we bump into. I didn't meet you until your tenth life. That's a lot of Doctors to deal with.”

“Oh, alright,” the caped Doctor sighed. “I'm sorry, Rose. I'm curious by nature, I can't help it with someone as fascinating as you. I never could resist a mystery.”

“Let's focus on solving this problem right now, Doctor. I don't want to miss the concert tonight,” Rose replied with a smile. He was always the same man and she was finding it true from her own side now too, she was still Rose, even if her accent and musical tastes had changed. “Do you have all the supplies we'll need to build this thing back at UNIT?”

He turned the car onto the drive that would lead them to the garage near his laboratory. “I should think so. They are fairly well equipped and I've got the TARDIS there as well.”

Rose reached out her mind towards the TARDIS in greeting and could feel her delight in response. This Doctor had said that he and Liz had been on their way to meet the Brigadier, so she didn't need to worry about meeting him out of order right now. She followed the Doctor through the hallways to his lab where the TARDIS was parked in the corner.

He immediately started piling components onto the table and Rose sorted them as she tried to figure out what he had in mind from the pieces he was choosing. Before long, he had her soldering circuit boards while he programmed the device with the correct frequencies they might need. Half an hour later they were done, packed the machine along with them into Bessie, and were on their way back to the park.

When they arrived, they could see Doctor Tyler using his sonic screwdriver to try and herd the worms to stay in the area of the park. “The meteorite wasn't far, if we direct the sound waves in that direction, we should be able to get them all in one or two bursts,” Doctor Tyler told them. “Liz collected all the pieces of the meteorite just in case there were anymore that hadn't hatched yet. We don't want this starting all over again later. She wants to study it anyway.” 

They all worked together to set up the machine that Rose and the third Doctor had assembled and soon all of the worms had been stopped. Doctor Tyler scanned the area carefully with his sonic to make sure that they hadn't missed any. As Rose had pointed out, without any natural predators on Earth, an infestation would quickly get out of control.

“Well done,” said the third Doctor. “Who knows what kind of damage they would do to this ecosystem. They are pests enough on Alpha Centauri, but without any predators to keep their numbers in check and at the rate that they multiply, it would be a global disaster in no time.”

“Well,” Doctor Tyler said once they were sure the park was free of Alpha Centauran Ground Worms. “He's going to forget this ever happened once you've left here, Liz. It's a survival instinct to keep from knowing too much about our own future. Don't be surprised and no need to mention the meeting again. We'd best be off now to get some tickets to the concert.” He flashed his little wallet of psychic paper to indicate how he planned to get those tickets.

The third Doctor chuckled at him, “Psychic paper. I suppose that would be helpful. It has been an absolute pleasure to meet you, my dearest Rose. I hope you enjoy the concert.”

Rose wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug. “Thank you, Doctor. It's been lovely meeting this version of you as well. You're quite a bit taller than the one before this.” He gaped at her since he didn't remember meeting her in his second incarnation and she played with the ruffles on his shirt a bit before moving back into her husband's arms.

Rose and Doctor Tyler waved goodbye as they walked off with their hands clasped and swinging between them. Liz and the third Doctor watched them go.

“I'll give you one thing, Doctor,” Liz said to him.

“What's that, Liz?” he asked.

“He's certainly got you beat in the looks department,” she laughed as he scowled at her.

“Well,” he retorted, “he's also got me beat in the companion department.”

She smacked his arm playfully and they walked back to Bessie to meet the Brigadier for whatever adventure he had summoned them to.

\----  
“Alright,” Rose said happily as they walked out of the concert. “How far are we jumping ahead?”

“We were in 2010, what do you think? Two years from then? Three?”

“Let's try three, I suppose.” Rose replied as they left the crowds behind them.

“Three it is, my love. Let's go to December 2013 and see what we can find.” He placed his hand over hers on the vortex manipulator and gazed happily into her eyes as he activated it.


	32. Questions and Cubes

Chapter Thirty-Two – Questions and Cubes

The Doctor and Rose found themselves back in London. They had been warm during their spring day in 1970, but December was quite a switch. Rose quickly pulled her coat out of her bag. She had found a long red coat in a similar style to the one her husband used to wear but with a tie around the waist to accentuate her figure.

They found a bench in a park nearby and Rose watched the people go by while her husband worked on the laptop. Rose thought about how little the city had changed in the time since she lived in the London of this universe. It was 2006 when she was ripped away from here and 2013 didn't really look so different compared to some of the things she had seen. And now, even if they didn't travel through time, she could see this city in 200 years. 

The long life that was ahead of her felt like a pit that would swallow her sometimes. She loved the idea of being with the Doctor for so long, never leaving him alone again, but the very idea of how long his life had already been and how long they would have ahead of them was difficult for her to wrap her head around. She supposed it was like when you were a little kid and the idea of ever being the age of your parents or grandparents seemed impossible somehow. It wasn't something you strived for or worked at, it just happened and it wasn't as bad as you thought it would be when you got there. She was comforted too by the knowledge that she definitely wouldn't be alone on that journey.

“I've found a couple of things. I'm going to avoid the one that just past recently though. UNIT reports there being three Doctors involved in something with Zygons. If there are already three of me there, I'm going to keep clear of it. That could get exceptionally messy,” the Doctor said while he skimmed through information on his computer. “But there was something about a year ago, here in London. I've got images of him on CCTV and stuff from UNIT. Looks like he was hanging around for a few months. Something to do with the world being invaded by little black boxes.”

“Ok, so we should be able to catch him sometime within those few months then? That should be easy enough,” Rose said.

“Well, this is where the problem lies with looking him up this way,” the Doctor began. “Because I've read this and know what happened, I know that we weren't involved. Which means that we can't be involved. We have to catch him after the reported crisis is over, but before he leaves again.”

“Could we show up during the crisis and wait on the sidelines until it's over? Or maybe we could find a way to communicate with the TARDIS while he's busy with the crisis?” His wife asked.

“As much as I'd love to say, yes let's jump in... the crisis in question caused massive heart failure in about a third of the population. He fixed it, but with my system already in flux the way it is, I'm not sure what something like that would do to me,” he seemed to be contemplating just how risky that might be.

Rose stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, “No. I won't risk you getting hurt like that, love. We'll go after it's done and try to catch him.”

“Alright, I have the information from the UNIT computers with the address of Rory and Amy Williams. It says they followed the surge of artron energy there.”

“Sounds like we may have found the right Amy then?” Rose smiled.

“Sounds like,” he agreed and began to program the vortex manipulator.

When they landed on the sidewalk, they saw an endless row of white houses. There was no question which one belonged to friends of the Doctor. The door was bright, TARDIS blue. People on the streets were still recovering from the events with the cubes. They could see paramedics making their way along the streets and checking the people who had just come back from their cube induced heart attacks.

When they knocked on the blue door, they were not surprised to find that there was no answer. The Doctor sonicked the lock and let them inside. Larger than life and parked in the livingroom, was the TARDIS.

“She looks different,” Rose commented.

“She is! Look at you,” he said as he stroked the bright blue paint. She was brighter and shinier and larger than when he saw her last. He pulled Rose's key out of his pocket and opened the door.

They both gaped at the interior that greeted them. It was bright and yellow and glass. Hand-in-hand, they climbed the stairs by the door and made their way towards the console. As they approached, there was a beeping noise and suddenly there was a holographic projection of Rose, the way she used to look.

The hologram spoke to them, “Bad Wolf program one enabled. This program is to activate if Rose and Doctor Tyler enter the TARDIS before the appointed time. We understand that you are worried, however, it is not safe for you to be here at this time. You have one hour before the Doctor returns and you must be away from here by then. Pack what things you feel you may need. The TARDIS is making a new sonic screwdriver for you, Rose. Programmed into it will be coordinates for you to visit some friends of the Doctor in his future. They will be able to explain a few things before you meet him at the correct time. If there is an unforeseen emergency and you need to call the TARDIS to you, activate setting 547. Only use this if one of you is near death, it is best if the timelines progress as they are meant to. It won't be long for you, try not to worry. End of message.” The Rose hologram disappeared and a new sonic screwdriver popped out of the console.

The Doctor walked over and pulled it out. He smiled broadly at the ornate gold fittings and white handle. The light on the end was red, of course. It seemed that the TARDIS agreed with Rose's new preferred colour pallet. He flipped it in the air once before handing it to his wife. She smiled at her new tool as if the TARDIS had just made up for every Christmas present that she never got on her list as a child and placed it in the pocket of her coat.

“Well,” he said, breaking the silence that had fallen over them since they entered the TARDIS. “You heard what... you... told us. We have a bit of packing to do.”

“That was so strange,” Rose said. “Hearing myself, but not myself. Is that kind of what it's like meeting a past version of you?”

“Not exactly. That wasn't really you so much as a computer interface based on you. You never acted that way when you looked like that, love,” he replied as he led her up the large staircase towards where the TARDIS was telling him they would find the wardrobe room and Rose's old room.

The Doctor grabbed the bigger-on-the-inside bag he found in the wardrobe for himself and packed up all of his old suits from this incarnation. The new Doctor certainly wouldn't need them and he also packed his proper brown coat that was given to him by Janis Joplin. He noticed that the TARDIS had set aside several outfits in Rose's new size and colour scheme and he packed those as well with a thank you directed at the TARDIS. He knew his wife would love them.

Rose had found her old room and was packing some photo albums into her bag. She hadn't seen these in years and she longed for reminders of her parents. She would never have photos of her little brother, but at least she would have some of her mum and her real dad. She also grabbed the album of pictures she had collected of her with the Doctor when they started travelling together. Before she could add it to her bag, however, a voice stopped her.

“Wait! Rose, don't take that one,” her husband said from the doorway. “He won't notice the other ones being gone, but without a doubt, he still looks at that one.”

“But,” Rose said as tears started to pool in her eyes. “This is the one I really want. What if... What if my taking it is a clue for him or something? That we are here looking for him?”

He rubbed the back of his neck and ruffled his hair. “How about, we copy the pictures into the memory on your new screwdriver? Then you can look at them and we won't risk damaging the timelines.”

She looked down at the album in her lap and sighed. “Alright, show me how to do that then. I need to learn how to use this thing.” She pulled her sonic from her pocket and tried to figure out how to work the settings. Her husband showed her how to set it, scan the photos and how to play them back later when she wanted to look at them. It wasn't the same, but it was something.

They were running out of time before they had to leave according to the message from the Bad Wolf. But the Doctor insisted on a quick trip to the Medbay before they left. Rose had never had a proper scan since she changed species and he wanted that before they left. He programmed a baseline scan of her system into his screwdriver and hid the files in the TARDIS computer where the other Doctor wouldn't stumble across them. He also did a thorough scan on himself to confirm what he had found on the tests they did at Torchwood. It showed that, yes, he was aging at a rate of approximately 10 human years to 1 actual year and he had about 5 or so left before the meta-crisis broke down completely. He looked about 45 now and would prefer to stop it soon.

Once all the files were hidden and the screwdrivers programmed, he checked the coordinates they were told would be programmed into Rose's sonic to find the other Doctor's friends.

“It looks like we're headed for Victorian London, my love. Should we change our clothes while we have the chance?” He smirked at her, remembering how she had wished for the wardrobe room when they had visited Venice.

“Absolutely!” She cried as she ran out the door and down the hallway. He laughed as he chased her towards the wardrobe room.

When they got there, the TARDIS had once again set aside something for Rose to wear. It was a beautiful, red and gold Victorian gown with a lovely matching corset and black stockings. The Doctor offered to help her, but knowing the time limit they were now under, Rose insisted that he couldn't touch any of it until she was taking it off later. Instead, he drooled while watching her dress and decided that his brown suit would do just fine for where they were headed.


	33. Lizards and Potatoes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter for this story, but the next one "Better With Three" will be posted shortly.

Chapter Thirty-Three – Lizards and Potatoes

Rose and Doctor Tyler walked arm-in-arm along the street in Victorian London as they headed towards the address given to them by the Bad Wolf program on the TARDIS.

“So, is there a name attached to that address, love?” Rose asked her husband.

“Let me show you. You should learn how to access this as well,” he said as he flicked through the settings on her screwdriver for her. “You see, it says we are looking for a Madam Vastra at this address and these time coordinates.”

She filed the new settings he had just shown her away in her memory and then put the screwdriver back into her coat pocket. “Alright, so we have a name and an address and we know that she is a friend of the other Doctor. The TARDIS seemed to say that she had important information about him, but how will we know what to ask her?”

“Oh, we'll just make it all up as we go along,” he smiled at her mischievously in a way that reminded her of their visit with his eighth incarnation. “Isn't that what we always do, my love?”

“I suppose you're right,” she said. “I don't know why this is making me nervous. Maybe because it finally feels like we're getting close.” Rose tried to make herself relax. This wouldn't likely be a dangerous meeting, these were the other Doctor's friends after all.

They climbed the stairs and Rose knocked on the door. A few moments later, the door was opened by what she could only describe as a large, sentient, baked potato.

“What?” Doctor Tyler questioned in shock.

Rose decided to be the more polite of the two of them and asked, “Umm, hello. We're looking for a Madam Vastra. Is she in?”

“But... but...” sputtered the Doctor. “Rose, that's a Sontaran!”

“Yes, sir. May I take your coat?” the alien replied calmly in the face of the Doctor's shock.

“No... no, thank you. I'm fine, thanks,” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck and tried to determine if this was a threat or trick of some kind. 

“May I take your coat, madam?” the potato-looking thing directed towards Rose.

“Certainly,” she said as she took her screwdriver out of the pocket and removed her coat.

“Please wait here, human scum, while I inform Madam Vastra of your arrival,” the Sontaran bowed toward them slightly before heading down the hall.

Rose and her husband both burst into hysterical giggles as soon as he was out of earshot. “What..” Rose tried to speak through her laughter, “What did he just call us?”

“Human scum,” the Doctor chuckled. “Sontarans are warriors, what in the world is one doing here acting as a butler of all things?”

The short warrior butler reappeared in the hallway and said as he rolled his eyes, “It's a long story. This way, please.”

They followed him towards the sitting room where they found themselves face to face with a young lady in a black dress and a humanoid lizard. “Silurian?” asked the Doctor.

The Silurian that they presumed was Madam Vastra raised an eyebrow at him, but before anyone could say anything more, Rose's screwdriver started beeping. When she held it up to look at what the alarm might mean, another hologram appeared in the middle of the room. It looked like the young version of the other Doctor that they had been following.

“Bad Wolf program, mark two. This message is programmed to activate when Rose's sonic screwdriver is in the presence of Vastra, Jenny and Strax.” Everyone in the room looked surprised as they eyed each other then looked back to the hologram. “The appearance of this interface was chosen to be recognized by the recipients of the message. They have been sent to you, Vastra, by the TARDIS. He is another version of the Doctor and she is his wife, Rose. Please explain to them, the recent events in the Doctor's life and the threat that the Silence presented previously. They need to know why it was dangerous for them to be involved in the Doctor's life until this point in his time line.” 

The hologram paused for a moment and turned his attention towards Rose. “Rose, after this message has ended, you are free to activate setting 547 at any time. Please listen to these friends first and take some time to think about what you have heard. Once you have signalled the TARDIS, she will come straight to you without delay. End of message.” At that, the image of the young, tweed-wearing Doctor disappeared.

The occupants of the room looked at each other dumbly for a moment.

“Well,” Madam Vastra said finally to break the silence that had fallen. “Perhaps we should have some tea. This may take some time.” She gestured towards the sofa across from where she was seated and Jenny poured tea for everyone.

“Thank you, Jenny, was it?” Rose said as she stirred some sugar into her tea.

“Yes, ma'am,” Jenny replied as she prepared her own cup of tea.

“Jenny is my wife. I am Vastra, as you may have gathered, and that is Strax. We are friends of the Doctor, as are you it would seem,” the Silurian said as she calmly drank something that they were quite sure was not tea, but didn't feel brave enough to ask about.

“We are definitely friends of the Doctor. We've been looking for him for quite some time now and the message from the TARDIS told us that we needed to see you before we met back up with him,” Rose explained.

“Ah, the Silence. It was all such a tangled mystery for the Doctor, but in the end the answer was simple. They wanted to keep him from answering one question,” Vastra told them.

“What question?” Doctor Tyler asked.

Vastra smiled enigmatically before continuing, “The story about the Silence, for us at least, began with Amy being kidnapped.” The story did take a very long time to tell, but she explained about who the Silence were, what had happened to River, how they had helped at Demon's Run and how the Doctor had eventually lost Amy and Rory. 

Vastra went on to tell them about meeting Clara first in London around this time while battling the Great Intelligence. They saw her with the Doctor several times and at one point, while facing the Great Intelligence on Trenzalore, she had scattered herself through the Doctor's entire time line. This Doctor thought about that, but without seeing the woman, he couldn't bring up the memories of her.

The rest of the story was what Clara had told them had happened. About meeting the past Doctors and changing his remembered outcome of the war. At the mention of that event, Doctor Tyler's brow furrowed in thought. He usually avoided the memories from when he was the Warrior, but forced himself to think about the end of the war. Suddenly, his eyes went wide when the memory unlocked in his mind. “Gallifrey wasn't destroyed,” he gasped in awe.

Rose wrapped her arm around him tightly as Vastra continued. She relayed what Clara had told her about Trenzalore and Christmas and the Time Lords granting him a new set of regenerations before he changed again into the newest Doctor that had helped them solve the problem of the clockwork men that had been killing people for parts recently. Rose shuddered at the mention of clockwork people and her husband squeezed her hand.

Silence fell over the room again after the long tale had ended. Rose and the Doctor were lost in thought for some time before they said anything.

Rose was the one to finally speak, “So, he looks different again?”

“Yeah,” said her husband. “And he has a whole new set of regenerations.” He wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. It wasn't that he wanted to take back the TARDIS and the role of the only Doctor or anything. He just wasn't sure what to think about the other Doctor starting out on a life that might be as long again as he had already been through or more. This new Doctor definitely needed them in his life. 

All of the friends that he had already lost over the centuries would be weighing down on him. There came a point where you just couldn't stand to lose any more. Doctor Tyler suspected that was what had led the other Doctor to hide for so long in Victorian London after losing Amy and Rory. He had finally picked himself up to move on, only to find that he was starting all over again with the weight of the universe and two broken hearts just waiting to be broken again.

Rose could feel her husband's thoughts about the other Doctor. “He needs us, doesn't he?”

Jenny spoke up, “Not to sound rude or anything, but who exactly are you? The hologram said you were another Doctor?”

“Well,” Doctor Tyler said as he ruffled his hair. “I suppose a story for a story is a fair trade. Shortly before the Doctor looked like the one on the hologram, he looked exactly like me. You see, there was a group of Daleks that escaped the time lock surrounding the war along with Davros. He's the one who created the Daleks. They captured and moved twenty-seven planets into the Medusa Cascade in order to create what Davros called a Reality Bomb...” He continued his story about Rose finding her way back from the parallel universe where she was trapped, his creation and their short, tragic time before coming back to this universe. He explained why they needed to find the other Doctor and ended with telling them about the first message they were given by the Bad Wolf program.

“I see,” said Vastra. “The Doctor was very unstable after his regeneration and Clara didn't accept the change very well in the beginning. We have not seen them since, so I cannot say what happened after their last departure.”

“Why was she so upset about it?” asked Rose. “I mean, she knew about regeneration because she met some of the previous Doctors. It shouldn't have been a shock to her like it was for me.”

Vastra clasped her hands together and seemed to take a moment to collect her thoughts before speaking again. “The last Doctor was young looking and handsome. Clara perhaps acquired a certain impression of their relationship.”

Doctor Tyler rolled his eyes, “Oh, not again! It's Martha all over again.”

“Indeed,” she continued. “The newest Doctor's appearance is significantly older and less... agreeable.”

“So he's pushing people away again?” Doctor Tyler concluded.

“Quite,” Vastra answered.

“Well,” Rose said as she stood up and adjusted her dress. “Sounds like I have work to do.” Rose smiled broadly. She had fixed him before and she could do it again. Not to mention, this time, she had help. She took the Doctor's hand and pulled him up with her, “Ready husband?”

With a bit of a resigned sigh, he replied, “Allons-y!”

Rose activated setting 547 on her sonic screwdriver.


End file.
